Perfect! Give the illusion that corrective action is being taken, and blame Bush.

But whatever you do, don't play politics with terror. Right?

Rozen and Ambinder both see NCTC chief Michael Leiter being set up for a fall, which began with an odd, unsolicited statement from him to the press last week, and continues with a leak to the New York Daily News that he didn't return from vacation to manage the crisis. (That angle, obviously, is a slightly tricky one for the White House to use.)

Because, of course, Obama didn't return either.

"Knives out."

Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency's "bat cave" nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.

"People have been grumbling that he didn't let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation," said one of the sources. ...

Leiter's spokesman declined to say when the terror-center chief returned to Washington and fully retook the helm of his analysis agency, which is near CIA headquarters just outside the nation's capital.

"It is our policy to not make our director's schedule available to the public," center spokesman Carl Kropf said in an e-mail.

Leiter has long been well-regarded, and he was not the only official in the homeland security orbit to skip town for vacation during the holidays. President Obama himself stayed in Hawaii until Jan. 4.

But Leiter's decision to stay close to the ski slopes instead of his headquarters - ground zero for defending the nation against terror - has raised eyebrows among intelligence officials, who have been scrambling since Dec. 25 to figure out what went wrong and plug the holes. ...

Without mentioning Leiter or the NCTC by name, Obama made it plain in a Tuesday speech that there was intelligence in the center's hands that should have been "fully analyzed and fully leveraged" to stop Abdulmutallab from boarding Northwest Flight 253.

Actually, this whole "he didn't interrupt his vacation" narrative isn't quite true.

(Update: the NCTC says Leiter was there on Christmas, and took six days leave after -- and the White House is backing him up.)

But it does seem he went on leave directly after the incident (or that is the word being leaked), and that's insufficient; people with positions of responsibility can't go on vacation when they're in a red-ball situation. That's just the way it is.

I don't mind this guy being fired. I object to the Obama Administration attempting to sweep its own problems and its own failures under the carpet with a high-profile but mostly empty and worthless firing.

I also am curious as to whether this guy stayed "in the loop" while outside DC -- as Captain Wonderful assures us he did.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

More: Tapper:

The story says that Leiter “remained on ski slopes” after Christmas, but Denis McDonough, National Security Staff Chief of Staff, refutes that, saying that “Leiter was -- throughout the events of December 25, 2009 -- indeed at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia, and intimately involved in all aspects of the nation’s response to the attempted terrorist attack -- to include coordinating intelligence, examining terrorist watch-listing, and briefing Members of Congress.”

Leiter stayed late at the NCTC on December 25, an intelligence official tells ABC News, and the next morning he held secure communications working the issue with many in the U.S. government.

He did go on vacation the day after the attempted attack, but a close associate of Leiter says that the leave was quite different than the carefree “ski trip” being depicted.

Leiter is divorced, and the purpose of the ski trip was to take “his seven-year-old son for his birthday to meet his grandparents,” both of whom are in their late 70s, the close associate tells ABC News.

He did so only “after explicit consultations with both the White House and the Director of National Intelligence,” McDonough said, adding it “did not affect in any way his ability to remain engaged with all elements of the United States Government. “

I get why he felt he had to go -- probably the only window for a while where he had custody of his child -- but still, job comes first.

Seems the White House gave its blessing to the trip, though.

Posted by: Ace at 10:09 AM | Comments (101)
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David Brooks just emailed me to say "Well, I guess I have my next three months of columns all blocked out." Kathleen Parker emailed to inform me her head just exploded, "just like in Scanners."

It's like a Woodstock of Pure Evil.

Rep. Michele Bachman will be the Breakfast Speaker Friday morning and Rep. Marsha Blackburn will be introducing Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska (2006 - 2009) and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee, Saturday evening at the Convention's closing night banquet.

February 4-6th at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

Not sure if this means she's seriously considering running or, as I've tended to think, more interested in being an spokeswoman for the cause.

Posted by: Ace at 09:42 AM | Comments (183)
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Oh and if you don't like the job he's doing, shut the hell up.

“I tell them to get a life. That’s old Washington, that’s old ways, and I don’t represent that, and that kills them,” Steele told ABC News Radio in an interview today.

“I’m telling them and I’m looking them in the eye and say I’ve had enough of it. If you don’t want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.”

...“All I’m saying is cut it out. If we have party differences that are inside the party, let’s deal with them inside the party. You don’t see the Democrats running around trying to beat up their national chairman or embarrass him.”

I guess that last point is true but then you don't see the Chair of the DNC running around bashing and embarrassing the base of his party either.

As for the whole "solid B" thing, how did a guy who coined the term "Drill baby, drill" get so out of touch with the base in just over a year? Has he missed all the mocking of Obama's B+ or does he just not have the ability to deflect a simple question like that?

It seems heavy hitter donors don't quite grade the Chairman's performance as generously as he does and are shying away from supporting the party under Steele.

They are also noticing that while the party is in a tough financial situation, Steele hasn't exactly been focusing like a laser on raising money. At least not for the party.

"I am not here to beat up on an RNC chairman," former Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson told The Times, "because I know how big and important the job is and what opportunities can be created."

"But that is just the point - under those circumstances, I do not see how a chairman can do book tours and give speeches for fees that go to him and not the RNC, which needs more money badly," said Mr. Nicholson, who was President George W. Bush's secretary of veterans affairs.

"You cannot serve two masters in that job," Mr. Nicholson said. "I think when elected, you agree to give the RNC and its mission 100 percent of your efforts."

Hari Sevugan, Democratic National Committee spokesman, said that "to the best of our knowledge, no Democratic national chairman has written a book or promoted his book while serving as national chairman."

Critics say Mr. Steele's new book, which retails for $18, is an example of using his office and title for personal gain. On the front of the dust jacket is his RNC title and a large color picture of the author.

If that's the 'new way' of running a party, I think I'd like to go back to the old one. Fast.

I Grade Myself [ace]: A good, solid A- for my two hours of link-only blogging yesterday before disappearing without notice.

What's especially irritating about Steele is that he refuses to acknowledge that his clientele -- you, me, everyone else -- actually has an opinion worth hearing on his performance.

Look, I don't think he's going to have this job for much longer. The PR problem of firing him -- "GOP in disarray," "White-dominated GOP fires first black chairman" -- is quickly being eclipsed by his bad tendency to veer wildly off-message.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:44 AM | Comments (216)
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He's now on board with the Senate tax increases for so-called Cadillac Health Care Plans.

President Barack Obama is pushing U.S. House Democrats to drop their opposition to a tax on high- end insurance plans as lawmakers try to craft a final health- care measure by early next month, a Democratic aide said.

The president expressed a preference for a Senate proposal to tax so-called Cadillac plans in a meeting yesterday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top party lawmakers, the aide said. The White House meeting came on the eve of a conference call Pelosi plans for noon today with her chamberÂ’s Democrats.

Pelosi is facing resistance as she tries to resolve differences in House and Senate bills that would mark the biggest changes to U.S. health policy in 45 years. The Cadillac tax is opposed by labor unions, which are among the partyÂ’s strongest backers, and 190 House Democrats.

“I realize the White House has a timeline they want to meet here, but particularly on the tax issue, there is great potential for blowback,” said Representative Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat who’s helping lead opposition to the tax.

Gibbsy said yesterday that this tax doesn't violate Obama's pledge because it will be a tax on the company that offers the policy and they won't pass that cost on to customers. Seriously, he said that.

MR. GIBBS: I would disagree with your notion that it is a tax on an individual since the proposal is written as a tax on an insurance company that offers a plan. I would say in terms of Speaker Pelosi, she was here yesterday and I think all involved thought the meeting that they had was very productive.

Q Can I ask just to follow on that, you don't think they pass those taxes on, those costs on to consumers?

MR. GIBBS: I'm not an insurance company broker.

Q Well, it's just obvious. Isn't it self-evident that they would do that?

MR. GIBBS: Not necessarily. They may just not offer --

Q I think any economist would consider it a de facto tax on a --

I don't know what's worse, the fact that he is shamelessly lying or this administration has such a poor grasp on economics. Lying and stupid is no way to go through life.

Also note 'They may just not offer--" bit. It's too bad he got cut off here because obviously he's saying insurance companies may not offer these types of plans any more. That of course violates Obama's 'if you like what you have, you can keep it' promise.

Even dim bulb Bob Herbert in the NY Times didn't buy this spin a few weeks back.

A lot of these plans cover union workers who in many cases bargained for them in exchange for lower wages or other forms of compensation. While I'm not a big fan of big labor, I have to agree with them on their opposition (of course, as big Obama backers they have no one else to blame). They made concessions and agreements in good faith and now the government comes in and says, yeah never mind we have a better use for your resources than you do. If nothing else it has the potential to create a fair number of newly minted conservatives.

At some point people are going to realize this is nothing more than a massive wealth and power grab from the majority of Americas. Unfortunately, it may well be too late by then to do much about it.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:40 AM | Comments (229)
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Some big poll news: first, Gallup says that for the first time in three years Democratic self-identification fell below 50% in 2009. That's the yearly number, so it obscures just how far the Democrats' numbers have fallen. The last quarter of 2009 was particularly bad...er, good:

In the first quarter of 2009, coincident with the beginning of the Obama administration, Democrats enjoyed one of the largest advantages for either party since 1991, 13 percentage points (51.7% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, versus 38.7% who identified as or leaned Republican). In each subsequent quarter, the percentage of Democratic supporters declined, and by the fourth quarter, the Democratic advantage had shrunk to 5 points (47.2% to 42.2%).

Second, Rasmussen has Republicans at 44% to Dem 35% on the generic ballot:

The latest generic ballot numbers highlight a remarkable change in the political environment during 2009. When President Obama was inaugurated, the Democrats enjoyed a seven-point advantage on the Generic Ballot. That means the GOP has made a net gain of 16 percentage points over the course of the year. Support for Democrats has declined eight points since Obama's inauguration while Republican support is up nine points.

Let's get this party started.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:40 AM | Comments (100)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:25 AM | Comments (140)
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Hard to believe that's possible since it was looking so bad and yet...

US intelligence officials believe that the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin LadenÂ’s close allies, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence.

They think that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taleban group thought to be shielding bin Laden.

...The attack was carried out by Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, who came to the CIA via Jordanian intelligence. He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives but he was allowed on to the CIAÂ’s Forward Operating Base Chapman without undergoing a security check and then permitted access to more than ten CIA employees, an extraordinarily high number to congregate around an Islamist informant. He detonated his bomb soon after entering the base, killing four CIA field agents, three CIA security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer. One of the dead was the CIAÂ’s chief at the base, a woman in her mid-thirties.

“Several of the [dead] were ... among the top five experts on al- Qaeda in the United States,” Mr Scheuer said. “When you lose that type of expertise, it’s very hard to replace it; impossible in the near term.”

Aside from killing some of the CIA's most experienced and knowledgeable officers the attack also benefited al Qaeda in other ways.

First, whether or not bin Laden is alive or not, the fact he and his top people are being credited with this hit adds luster to his myth and maybe the reality. In the strong/horse weak horse race, this is a boost for the bin Laden 'brand'.

Second, the bomber was supposed to be a Jordanian agent. Not only has the close relationship between Jordan and the US exposed (and that won't be popular back in Jordan), there's now likely to be a breach in trust between the US and their Jordanian counterparts. No one knows what good information won't be shared or believed in the future.

Check out this Hot Air post featuring Joe Scarborough talking about how this 'agent' was able to get so many CIA agents in one place and to get through any security checks.

It's hard to believe that loss of a relatively few number of people can do so much damage to the war effort but it seems to be the case. It's a chilling reminder that our enemy is out there and he's patient, clever and deadly.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:17 PM | Comments (145)
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Good evening morons!

Moron Social Networking Update
Okay the Yahoo AoSHQ group is up and running!

Not to worry - it's ewok approved and not meant to replace the blog, the ONT, the AoSHQ Facebook group or anything else moron-related. The main benefit of a Yahoo group is that it allows morons to connect outside the blog while staying anonymous if they wish. To join you just need to create a Yahoo profile using your blog handle as your username, then request to join the group. You can either use your own email or the Yahoo email as your main contact. Currently wherestherum and myself are the moderators so we'll have to manually approve your request.

If you want to stay private just set your Profile Settings so that only My Connections can see your info. Within the group other members will be able to email you without seeing your complete email. However if you respond to the email list, your profile email will be visible.

Right now it's kind of empty but we expect to have an Ace and Brian Denehy FAQ soon. :-)

Click to join AceOfSpadesHQ

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:50 PM | Comments (692)
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Well, I assume it's Andrew Sullivan, I mean you can never be too sure who is writing over there but this level of crazy seems right up Sully's lane so it's a safe bet it's him.

You see, St. Heartache is sick of the whole gosh darn mess over there so it's time to drop in some NATO troops (that's US in reality for those scoring at home) and impose a solution on those tiresome Israelis and Palestinians. (safe link to Commentary's website)

My own view is moving toward supporting a direct American military imposition of a two-state solution, with NATO troops on the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel. I'm sick of having a great power like the US being dictated to in the conduct of its own foreign policy by an ally that provides almost no real benefit to the US, and more and more costs.

How exactly is the US having its foreign policy dictated to it by Israel? What are they going to do cut off their military aid to us and leave us to fend for ourselves in a part of the world where all our neighbors have tried to wipe us off the map on more than one occasion?

Oh wait, that's not an accurate portrayal of the US-Israeli power relationship.

Aside from the sheer lunacy of imposing borders on a sovereign democracy, which also happens to be a close ally, what in Sullivan's increasingly deranged mind makes him think the prospect of US soldiers fighting to keep Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest from attacking Israel is going to work? Does he really think these groups are just going to turn over their weapons to us or let us confiscate them without a fight?

You could go on for hours about why this is a nonsensical idea and the unending reasons why it wouldn't work.

The other day Sullivan actually wrote (safe link to the Google cache) "try thinking rather than just emoting. Which is easier said than done when blogging in real time."

All I can say to that is, try harder Andrew. Try harder.

On the upside, no one takes this lunatic seriously anymore. Unfortunately, this idiocy isn't simply the product of Andrew's feavered brain, it's something that's been floating around on the left for awhile. Below the fold, Samantha "Hillary Is A Monster" Power, now a member of Obama's NSC staff trotted it out back in 2002.

more...

Posted by: DrewM at 02:40 PM | Comments (603)
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Why is it that the "normal" dudes have to choke the chicken while the weird dudes get to stroke the cat? Listen to Adam Carolla lay it down for even the simplest AoSHQ Moran to understand. h/t the ever interesting yesbutnobutyes Language warning more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 02:09 PM | Comments (189)
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