Joe Klein on Benghazi

“There is no scandal here–except for the reprehensible behavior of politicians like John McCain and Lindsey Graham.” Amen!

Klein unloads:

There is no scandal here–except for the reprehensible behavior of politicians like John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Except that I’d add “and the unwillingness of most of the press to call b.s. on a b.s. pseudo-scandal.” Anyone who even pretends to take this seriously should be conclusively presumed either to be a total hack or to be just too dumb to live.

But really, you need to read the whole thing. Klein reads McCain a well-deserved lesson.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

7 thoughts on “Joe Klein on Benghazi”

  1. I seriously wonder about Sen. McCain’s mental healtbh. He’s been overly combative with the press, illogical in his assertions, and absent in any kind of apology. With his recent statement that we should send Pres. Clinton to the Middle East when (1) we already have Secretary Clinton in the Middle East and (2) the Obama Administration was able to foster a cease-fire relatively quickly… It’s just strange.

    When he was alive, Christopher Hitchens openly questions McCain’s senility. I wonder if McCain’s increasing orneriness, grand statements, and temper are actually indicators of and aged mind?

    I don’t mean to be unpleasant about it - I have seen members of my own family suffer dimensia and senility - its horrible, but even senators suffer these afflictions. I just hope McCain doesn’t become the next Thurmond, nothing more than a husk where a living mind used to be.

    1. In re: Hitchens on McCain, you must admit that that had strains of the pot calling the kettle black, even before his cancer diagnosis.

      1. McCain has always been a grandstanding, ignorant, dishonest blowhard, with a carefully calculated moment or two of false “moderation” thrown in to keep the media happy. There’s really nothing here that should surprise anyone.

  2. Unfortunately, the likes of McCain and Graham will always be with us. That should not be the case with the silliness of the media, however.

    I understand their mob-like following of the Benghazi pseudo-scandal. It has a certain sexiness to it due to the call to “account for the death of brave Americans.”

    What I don’t understand is the media’s constant repetition of the term “financial cliff” and their total investment into the concept that the biggest economic problem facing this country is the growth in the federal deficit. (That hotbed of left-wing agitation, Investors Business Daily, points out the that the federal deficit is declining as a percent of GDP at the fastest rate since the demobilizaton following WWII. http://bit.ly/ThvXBO)

    1. Investor’s Business Daily is part of the media, isn’t it?

      If so, then “the media’s” “investment into the concept that the biggest economic problem facing this country is the growth of the federal deficit” must be less than “total.”

  3. Any given pundit’s rare moment of honesty (perhaps because they forgot to buy liquor, and sobered up in the morning without a bottle handy) means jack fracking all. They almost always go right back on the liar wagon in their next column.

    If Klein keeps on this, that’ll mean something, and my money is that he backtracks immediately.

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