Friday, March 07, 2008
the public are shocked by the state of society, but as for you, you're a breath of purity:
Leave the ad aside for a moment. Here's a great moment in classiness caught by Politico's Ben Smith:
Retired NATO commander Wes Clark and former State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin attacked Samantha Power on a Clinton conference call just now, a fairly poignant moment because Power, in the past, has been their vocal ally.

Clark is a hero of Power's first book, A Problem from Hell, and she and Rubin both backed Clark for president in 2004.

Clark today called her words "disturbing" and suggested that Obama's stance boils down to "simply show[ing] up and say[ing], 'What's this all about?'" That approach would, he said, "leave us still at war."

Rubin blamed Obama for the mess, in particular for giving a senior foreign policy adviser — he described her variously as a "guru" and a "svengali" with "unlimited access to the candidate — free rein to tour the world talking about his policies in a field where words matter.

"He can't seem to run a foreign policy team the way it's supposed to run," he said, calling it "amateur hour on making foreign policy."

"I feel very sorry for her," Rubin said. "This is his fault, not her fault."
I'm guessing Clark is referring to some Power comments about potentially listening to the military about the pace of withdrawal. Wow, candor! Well, according to Jack Keane, Hillary Clinton would not get the U.S. out of Iraq at all. As for Jamie Rubin, he might want to think twice before he embarrasses himself any further.

More broadly, kicking someone when she's down? Someone who's helped you in the past? Hope you feel good about that.
--Spencer Ackerman
posted 2:34 PM |
Spencer,

It's actually worse than that. She used to introduce him at campaign events.

I've lost a ton of respect for both Clark and Rubin (and Larry Johnson) lately.
Blogger dell | 9:29 PM

Maybe now might be an opportune moment to break ground rules on TNR's 2003 off-the-record lunch with Clark. Hey, I don't work there anymore, right?
Blogger Spencer Ackerman | 8:37 AM

Spencer,

I would love to hear, here or privately at wendell dot bell at gmail dot com
Blogger dell | 7:53 PM

Ugh--this seriously hurts all around, as it pours hot tar all over a fond memory I have a little New Hampshire restaurant on Gen. Clark's campaign...which featured BOTH Samantha Power and Jamie Rubin as surrogates.

Although, if we can presume that Smith extracted the worst of what Clark and Rubin said ("disturbing", "this his fault, not her fault"), then it doesn't exactly look like they went after her with tire irons...

And Spencer, don't do anything you'd regret...but I'm not gonna lie that I'm curious!!
Blogger Unknown | 3:32 PM