Thurston, We Have a Problem

“State Department: Yeah, despite our denial, Kerry was on his yacht during Egypt upheaval,” Mary Katharine Ham writes at Hot Air. Click over for the back story, which involves a pair of Wednesday tweets from CBS producer Mosheh Oinounou, the second of which was a photo of Kerry’s yacht in the dock, captioned, “Secretary Kerry was aboard his yacht, the ‘Isabel’ this afternoon”:

The second of those two tweets went understandably viral, at which point, the State Department could have issued a statement saying, “The Secretary of State is in Nantucket but is actively engaged in diplomatic blah, blah, blah.” But that’s not what they did. Instead, they unequivocally denied the report:

But the State Department said Kerry was not aboard a boat on Wednesday and has spent the day working the phones on Egypt. “Since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 a.m., Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “He participated in the White House meeting with the president by secure phone and was and is in non-stop contact with foreign leaders, and his senior team in Washington and Cairo. Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate.”

That’s Jen Psaki, formerly of the Obama campaign, if the elegant ease of her B.S. syntax rings a bell for you. In the face of conflicting reports and photographic evidence from other Nantucket denizens that Kerry was indeed in Nantucket and his boat was on the water, State finally admitted to CBS that Kerry was “briefly” on his boat Wednesday.

And CBS’s fellow lefties at the House of Stephanopoulos are certainly cool with that. “Objectivity overboard! ABC News runs interference for yachtsman Kerry,” Twitchy notes, linking to ABC tweeting that “Kerry Focused on Egypt Despite Yacht Visit.” Nope, no bias there. And when I say that there is none, I do mean that there is a certain amount, to borrow from another nautical comedy routine. This Twitter user is succinct in his reply:

I’m sorry…you seem to be a bit muffled w/ your head up the President’s ass. RT @ABCPolitics: Kerry Focused on Egypt Despite Yacht Visit

— Matthew H. (@Matthops82) July 5, 2013

On the other hand, as Richard Fernandez writes, give Kerry credit for getting as far away as possible from the hash his boss is making of the Middle East:

Perhaps some people might have thought that John Kerry had the sense to go fishing, as that would be a higher and better use of time than hanging out with the White House wrecking crew. Better to be on the “Isabel” than on the “Titanic.”

It is not unreasonable to wonder how the president can go forward in Syria, Turkey, Libya, Jordan and Iraq — remember Iraq? — with American diplomacy in this condition. My advice: if someone asks “who lost the Middle East?” — go look for a YouTube video to blame.

Oh, and continuing the theme of this administration being rudderless and adrift at sea, this was an official Tweet from the Obama administration today:

obama_kayek_tweet_7-5-13