The Quote of the Day from The Politico’s Ben Smith:
It’s almost a convention of politics that when a politician says he was misquoted, but doesn’t detail the misquote or offer an alternative, he’s really saying he wishes he hadn’t said what he did, or that he needs to issue a pro-forma denial to please someone.
The Iraqi Prime Minister’s vague denial seems to fall in that category. The fact that it arrived to the American press via CENTCOM, seems to support that. It came, as Mike Allen notes, 18 hours later, and at 1:30 a.m. Eastern, a little late for Sunday papers; his staff also seems, Spiegel reports, not to have contested Iraqi reporting of the quote, even in the “government-affiliated” Iraqi press.
The notion this was a misquote also bumps up against Spiegel’s standing by its reporting, and providing a long, detailed transcript.
More broadly, Maliki’s words illustrate a political reality: Foreign players have a real influence on American politics, and they know it.
And, indeed:
1. As Smith concludes, it’s likely Maliki knew he was playing American domestic politics.
2. American politics increasingly relies on a series of legalistic on-the-record responses that anyone but a can of peas sitting on a shelf at Vons Supermarket on Adams Avenue in San Diego knows are baloney.
3. Just as night follows day and as money follows Hanna Montana concerts, everyone KNEW that the Bush administration would not let Malki’s statement stand and that there would be some kind of a retraction. In political terms (damage to the GOP) and foreign policy terms (the United States’ relationship to Iraq and its present government) it could not stand. You went to bed knowing that there would be a story soon about the interview “finessing” the comments..
4. But if you read partisan blogs, the statement about being misquoted is now being trumpeted as fact. And it’s likely many of those who’ll assert it as fact in print and broadcast know it’s proforma intergovernmental CYA — but it gives them a legalistic debating point. “See? Maliki SAID it was a lousy translation!”
5. The DELAY is the key.
6. The fact it did not come from Maliki himself within hours of the sensational story hitting the wires and Internet is another key to what happened.
7. Der Spiegel has been around for many years and translated many articles of interviews of foreign leaders. So in this instance they just happened to have a poor translator…just as it just happened that it took almost a day before Maliki responded…through a spokesman?
Tell it to the can of peas…..
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.