Kinetic Military Infarction

“Obama fails to grasp the gravity of going to war,” Byron York writes:

“I see Obama’s visiting the United States,” said Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, the president’s first full day back in Washington after a spring break diplomatic tour of Latin America. For the White House, it was a touch of well-deserved sarcasm; Obama’s absence at the start of the Libyan hostilities, along with his haphazard conversations with members of Congress and his nonexistent effort to prepare the American public for war, left more than a few Washington insiders shaking their heads over how the president could have mishandled things so badly.Say what you will about the Bush White House. It knew something about preparing Congress and the public for war, having done so before invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. A president needs to lay the foundation for military action by holding extensive briefings for Congress and also by explaining to the American people why action is needed and what it will involve.

That’s why veterans of the Bush White House can’t quite believe what they are seeing from the supposedly communications-savvy Obama administration.

“I am completely mystified,” says former top Bush aide Karl Rove, who supports the Libya intervention, “that this administration, of all administrations, makes a decision on a Tuesday night and does not bother to call anybody in Congress until Friday morning, 90 minutes before the policy is going to be executed, to tell them what is going to happen. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had tried to do that? We’d have been barbecued!”

Nahh — just blame it on the shirts:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney looked to his wardrobe today to explain to reporters who objected to his off camera briefing why he decided not to get under the klieg lights.

I have to say it’s because my shirt — I didn’t have any white or blue shirts — and this one wouldn’t work on TV, so I decided to gaggle. All my other shirts are in the laundry.

Paul “The guys gets shirts!” Anka could not be reached for comment — but in any case, it’s far too late for the guys in the White House to get on a whole new integrity kick.

(Cross-posted at Ed Driscoll.com)