Incompetent lib bloggers can't remember if incompetent Reid called Pace incompetent (he did), and don't care anyway
Replace the first two "incompetents" with your adjectives of choice
Earlier this week, the Politico broke the news that Dingy Harry Reid - in a conference call with far-left bloggers - had called outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, an "incompetent yes-man."
The story exploded via Drudge, FNC, CNN, and other outlets, and sparked a great deal of movement on both sides of the aisle. Conservatives began bashing Reid for the gall brought on by his pathetic, inferiority-complex-driven need for approval from the netroots, and the left began furiously backing away from the story, questioning if it had ever actually happened in the first place.
TPM Cafe's Election Central today reported that they asked several bloggers on the call if they had heard Reid call Pace "incompetent," and all denied remembering the use of such language.
"I don't remember him saying anything like that," [Daily Kos blogger Joan McCarter] answered. "I can't swear he didn't say it. But I have no memory that he actually did. It's not in my notes."The comments, of course, went much further, calling the story of Reid's comments "made up," and accusing the "right wing" of again trying to "smear" Democrats.
Asked if Reid had disparaged Petraeus at all, McCarter said: "No. He said something about [Petraeus] coming back in September to deliver a report." But on the question of whether he'd said something disparaging, McCarter said: "Not that I recall, no."
"I don't even recall Pace's name specifically being mentioned," adds Barbara Morrill, who blogs at Kos under the name BarbinMD and says she was on the call. "If it was, he did not say that he was incompetent."
Asked if he'd criticized Petraeus, Morrill said: "Not that I recall. I checked my notes," and there was nothing like this."
Woops. At the same time that this report was being posted, Reid was in front of a gaggle of reporters admitting that he had, in fact, called Pace just that - and then demanding that the media "just forget about it."
This evening, TPMCafe posted a partial transcript the blogger call in question, and - sure enough - the comment was in there - regardless of how or why it was done, the Senate Majority Leader not only called the nation's highest ranking military officer "incompetent," but he bragged about having said it to the man's face.
If that story (which rings of schoolyard "yeah-I-hit-a-bully" yarns) is in fact true, then suffice to say that Harry Reid is very, very lucky that Gen. Pace is the professional he is. The rest of that thought I'll leave to your imagination.
And the rest of this affair can be summed up with this, courtesy of Glenn:
[The reason why none of the bloggers in question were even able to recall the statement being made is that,] most likely, those sorts of statements just don't make much of an impression with the netroots. Which is ironic, since Reid probably made them for their benefit.Ah. Incompetence all around.
...Reader Stan Smith mocks them for their Scooter Libby stance: "And these folks can't
even remember what someone said mere DAYS ago...."
Call Patrick Fitzgerald!
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