When retired General Ricardo Sanchez made THESE REMARKS late last week blasting the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, we noted that the administration would eventually reply — perhaps by using the timeworn technique of “surrogates.”
That’s where a politico or administration that wants to maintain “plausible deniability” has someone else leap into the mud puddle and septic tank to sling the mud and sleaze to try and discredit someone who is a pesky critic who got a lot of publicity — particularly if that pesky critic has a bit of credibility. Then the guys at the top can say: “We never said that!” (It’s always notable that they do not REPUDIATE it..)
And so — it is getting a bit predictable and tiresome, isn’t it? — HERE IT IS. Read it in full and watch the video.
To be blunt: Senator Lindsey Graham wouldn’t normally go after Sanchez this way.
He isn’t just trying to rebut Sanchez’ comments. He is trying to publicly discredit him personally so people don’t seriously consider his critical-of-the-administration comments.
If Graham felt so deeply about this, he had ample opportunity to do so before and would have done so. It’s notable that Graham and Sanchez’ other newfound critics in the Republican Party suddenly are sounding the alarm about him after keeping silent for so many years — and coincidentally they’re doing so right after he lambasted the administration’s Iraq policy and the implementation of it in comments that got enormous press coverage around the world.
BUT this is an improvement for the administration’s supporters:
At least Sanchez isn’t a 12-year-old boy….
Here is what we wrote in our original post on Sanchez’ comments:
The New York Times story says the White House had no immediate comment, but there will likely be one in coming days either from the White House — or from its large stable of surrogates.
You read it here first…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.