Along with the rest of the Media establishment, Washington D.C.-based newspaper Roll Call attacked Mitt Romney for criticizing the Obama administration for its failures in the Middle East. The criticism came after our embassies in Egypt and Libya were attacked by angry Muslims. To push the anti-Romney narrative, Roll Call claimed that a “rift” had developed among Republicans over Romney’s reaction. Strangely, the Capitol Hill newser didn’t offer much by way of proof that such a rift exists.
Immediately after the attack in Cairo, Egypt, our embassy released an ill advised statement that essentially blamed America’s tradition of free speech for the violence. Mitt Romney immediately responded that this was a “disgraceful” statement for a U.S. embassy to make and criticized the Obama administration for it.
After all, America’s embassies operate under the control of the President of the United States and when an embassy speaks it is rightfully assumed that they are speaking with the President’s voice.
As Roll Call saw it, some more cautious members of the Republican Party establishment wished that Romney would have “waited” longer to make his statement. But contrary to what Roll Call claimed, there is little evidence that any deep or lasting “rift” has formed between the Party’s nominee for president and its elected officials.
Roll Call tried its best to make this rift seem wide, but even those Republicans the paper quoted all agreed that Romney’s criticism of Obama was essentially correct.
The paper added Obama’s voice to the story reiterating his claim that sometimes Romney has a “tendency to shoot first and aim later.” This from the President that once said police “acted stupidly,” a comment that forced him to back track and invite an aggrieved policeman to the White House for a “beer summit” and an apology.
But the paper was only able to find one GOP Congressman that was somewhat put off by Romney’s statements.
Roll Call quotes New York Congressman Peter King as having said he wished Romney had “waited 12 hours or 24 hours to make the statement.” But King wasn’t as put off by Romney’s actions as Roll Call tried to make it seem. The Congressman went on to say, “but he is right in the overall situation as I see it. We have to be more aggressive in the Middle East.”
Far from revealing some sort of major rift, what Roll Call actually revealed was a party basically united behind its nominee.
Roll Call has been having trouble of its own this year, though. Recently the paper shed so many jobs that the loss was called a “bloodbath” by former employees.