TPM Reader ML wonders what kindling to the fire may have been added by the McCain/Graham visit to each which, remember, President Obama greenlighted …
As a person who worked on national security issues in the federal government for many years, I will certainly comment. If you are representing your country abroad on official business, you have to be very mindful that you are not on the hustings in Iowa. You must measure your words with excruciating exactness. When I saw senators McCain and Graham commenting from Egypt on CBS News, I told myself “boy, this is not good.”
Both were very hyperbolic, and Graham, in particular, sounded almost panicky. Did they cause the events that followed? By no means; but they helped poison the atmospherics between the U.S. government and Egypt, and probably diminished whatever leverage the U.S. had at that point.
If the West Wing boys were as politically opportunistic as the Republicans, they might be tempted to turn the Egyptian official’s comments about McCain and Graham into a “reverse Benghazi” and claim the ham-fisted approach of the GOP’s two alleged “national security experts” proves they are not ready for prime time. On the other hand, President Obama saw fit to appoint them to a sensitive mission rather than a seasoned envoy who would be solely responsible to Obama. This is why you do not let senators go abroad and conduct U.S. diplomacy.
