Political Public Opinion: Harry Reid Tries To Make A Point – And Fails

“Arrogance diminishes wisdom.” 

Arab parable

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), (with his usual arrogance), on Tuesday accused Republicans of endangering national security, flipping a traditional GOP line of attack….In a floor speech, Reid accused Senate Republicans of making the nation more vulnerable to attack by blocking nominees to key security posts….Reid highlighted four national-security positions that have remained vacant because of Senate GOP objections:

 ·     The undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the No. 3 job at the Pentagon.

·     The assistant secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, the head of State’s intelligence operation.

·     The undersecretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis.

·     The U.S. representative to the Conference on Disarmament, who is tasked with promoting the control of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/79233-reid-plays-national-security-card-on-balky-republicans

Harry Reid once again shows himself inept by making weak accusations against the opposition party. Reid evidently forgot to mention that those individuals who are now hold various intelligence and national security posts have proven themselves inept and out of their depth. One need only look at DHS Director Janet Napolitano whose track record belies any knowledge of security issues. Then we have John Brennen Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor who allegedly stated he did not know that the “crotch” bomber was inbound to the U.S.  But, Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence  admitted….According to a New York Times report, (that), the president’s top counter terrorism adviser knew from his counterpart in Saudi Arabia that al-Qaeda operatives were hiding bombs in their nether regions. The National Security Agency had intercepted communications suggesting that al-Qaeda intended to use an unnamed Nigerian to strike the U.S. around Christmas. It also knew that an “Umar Farouk” had volunteered for an attack.

Need we continue? Without beating this “not so dead horse” any further we might gather that perhaps the Republicans saved the Obama administration from further embarrassment by delaying those appointments. After all, their hand picked advisors thus far have shown themselves as bumblers and who knows what these new nominees, if confirmed, might do to.  As for Harry Reid’s assertion that the Republicans are responsible for the administration’s intelligence failures, well….that’s just Harry Reid, a master of misrepresentation, obfuscation and deflection, dribbling his usual verbal diarrhea, out of his mouth.  Just my opinion.

William McCullough