{"id":612,"date":"2010-02-11T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=612"},"modified":"2010-02-11T03:20:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T11:20:00","slug":"republicans-demand-that-brennan-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/11\/republicans-demand-that-brennan-resign\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Demand That Brennan Resign"},"content":{"rendered":"

The level of GOP hypocrisy is going up faster that the economy went down under their governance.<\/p>\n

\n

\"republican-lies\"<\/a> Almost immediately after Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab failed to detonate a bomb on an airplane on Christmas Day, conservatives rushed to politicize the attempted terrorist attack. \u201cPeople have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,\u201d Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) said before he\u2019d even been briefed on the incident. Karl Rove and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) criticized President Obama for issuing a statement on the failed bombing 72 hours after the event, even though President Bush<\/font> waited longer<\/a> to comment on \u201cshoe-bomber\u201d Richard Reid\u2019s failed attempt to bring down an airliner in Dec. 2001.<\/font><\/p>\n

The drumbeat of political criticism from conservatives since then has been unrelenting, especially focusing on the fact that Abdumuttalab was read his Miranda rights after he awoke from surgery. Recently, the Obama administration has<\/font> begun pushing back<\/a> at the GOP\u2019s political onslaught. On Meet The Press this past Sunday, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA, pointed out that he had<\/font> kept key Congressional Republicans informed<\/a> of Abdulmuttalab detainment by the FBI:<\/font><\/p>\n

On Christmas night, I called a number of senior members of Congress. I spoke to Senators McConnell and Bond, I spoke to Representative Boehner and Hoekstra. I explained to them that he was in FBI custody, that Mr. Abdulmutallab was, in fact, talking, that he was cooperating at that point. They knew that \u201cin FBI custody\u201d means that there\u2019s a process then you follow as far as Mirandizing and presenting him in front of a magistrate. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Brennan followed up his critique with a USA Today op-ed arguing that \u201ctoo many in Washington are now<\/font> misrepresenting the facts to score political points<\/a>.\u201d Brennan\u2019s op-ed included the highly-charged assertion that \u201cpolitically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

Republicans have responded to Brennan\u2019s pushback with incredulity. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, citing former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen\u2019s misunderstanding of the facts, called Brennan \u201ctroubling\u201d on Fox News yesterday. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) called Brennan an \u201c<\/font>egomaniac<\/a>.\u201d Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) declared Brennan \u201c<\/font>needs to go<\/font><\/a>,\u201d and is no longer \u201ccredible.\u201d On Fox News today, Hoekstra, who repeatedly referred to Brennan as a \u201cWhite House staffer\u201d as opposed to an intelligence \u201cprofessional,\u201d said Obama should \u201cfire\u201d him. Watch it:<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

On MSNBC today, Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie grilled Bond about whether the \u201cRepublican Party deserve[s] some blame\u201d for terrorism becoming \u201ctoo politicized.\u201d Bond responded in denial, saying, \u201cgive me a break.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re the ones who went out and called politics and they played politics,\u201d said Bond of the White House. In an ironic twist, however, he then claimed that criticisms of the Bush administration\u2019s terrorism policy during the past eight years had been \u201cpolitical attacks.\u201d\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

The principal GOP argument to deflect the criticism that their leadership was informed  is that they had no idea that Abdulmuttalab had received Miranda rights because FBI representatives are included in a special group to deal with terrorists.  Bull!  Brennan told then Abdulmuttalab was in FBI custody, not that of a new terrorism group.  When asked about Richard Reid receiving Miranda rights under Bush, Newt Gingrich claimed it was because Reid is a US citizen.  If fact, Reid is a Brit.  This is a manufactured issue, made up weeks after the fact.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, Abdulmuttalab <\/strong>should not have had a Visa, and would not have were it not for a misspelling of his name in the State Department database.  That database, like everything else that deteriorated under Republican rule, desperately needs updating.  That is not Obama\u2019s fault.  It\u2019s part of the conditions he inherited.  Since that original error, our performance in dealing with Abdulmuttalab has been nothing short of magnificent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The level of GOP hypocrisy is going up faster that the economy went down under their governance. Almost immediately after Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab failed to detonate a bomb on an airplane on Christmas Day, conservatives rushed to politicize the attempted terrorist attack. \u201cPeople have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}