Monthly Archives: June 2010

An Inconvenient Smooch: Al Gore Subject of Sex Crime Investigation

The Gore divorce doesn’t seem so crazy now:

A Portland massage therapist gave local police a detailed statement last year alleging that former Vice President Al Gore groped her, kissed her and made unwanted sexual advances during a late-night massage session in October 2006 in a suite at the upscale Hotel Lucia.

The woman told investigators that she informed two friends and kept the clothes she wore that night, including her black pants with stains on them. But Portland police didn’t contact any of the woman’s friends, obtain the potential evidence or interview anyone at the hotel, records show.

The juicy bits:

While giving Gore an abdominal massage, she said he demanded that she go lower and soon grabbed her right hand and shoved it under the sheet.

“I felt like I was dancing on the edge of a razor,” she told Detective Molly Daul.

She tried to use an acupressure technique to relax Gore and thought she may have nearly put him to sleep. She went into the bathroom to wash up and came out to pack up.

That’s when, she says, Gore wrapped her in an “inescapable embrace” and fondled her back, buttocks and breasts as she was trying to break down her massage table.

She called him a “crazed sex poodle” and tried to distract him, pointing out a box of Moonstruck chocolates on a nearby table. He went for the chocolates and then offered her some, cornering her, fondling her and shoving his tongue in her mouth to french kiss as he pressed against her.

She said he tried to pull her camisole strap down.

She said she told him to stop it. “I was distressed, shocked and terrified.”

She said she was intimidated by his physical size, calling him “rotund,” described his “violent temper, dictatorial, commanding attitude” — what she termed a contrast from his “Mr. Smiley global-warming concern persona.”

Later, she said, he tried to lure her into the bedroom to hear pop star Pink’s “Dear Mr. President” on his iPod dock. She said Gore sat on one end of the bed and motioned for her to join him.

Suddenly, she said, he “flipped me on my back, threw his whole body face down over a top me, pinning me down.”

She said she loudly protested, “Get off me, you big lummox!”

There’s absolutely nothing funny about assault but, crazed sex poodle? That nickname is going to stick. But that’s the least of Al’s problems since the National Enquirer (which broke the story) says it looks like criminal prosecution isn’t out of the question:

In a statement just released by Multnomah County (OR.) D.A. Michael D. Schrunk, the official reveals that “our office was notified by the Portland Police Bureau that further investigation of this matter had been conducted by it in 2009 and we were provided with the reports from that further investigation.”

Schrunk goes on to add: “If the complainant and the Portland Police Bureau wish to pursue the possibility of a criminal prosecution, additional investigation by the Bureau will be necessary and will be discussed with the Portland Police Bureau.”

You can read the police report here.

Reaction:

Outside the Beltway
So: We have four-year-old allegations that police didn’t think credible at the time from a woman who apparently was more interested in profiting from a civil suit than prosecuting. That’s pretty thin grounds for believing Gore committed a crime. Still, it’s pretty clear that Gore was in a hotel room with a woman not his wife. And it appears that Mrs. Gore believes something illicit was going on in that room.

Jammie Wearing Fool
For shame, Manbearpig, for shame.

Wonkette
But if there is something to it, then it’s just more gross behavior from the super-rich gross people who either rule over the nation or make gazillions telling the nation to stop farting because it is killing the planet. (Those are the talking points for AM radio tomorrow. You’re welcome!)

Marbury
The only bit that made me wonder about her report was this: She…described his “violent temper, dictatorial, commanding attitude” — what she termed a contrast from his “Mr. Smiley global-warming concern persona.” Wait – his global-warming persona is dictatorial and commanding, isn’t it?

Weasel Zippers
I’m not saying it’s 100% true, but the National Enquirer has been sued so many times in the past their lawyers don’t let anything go to print unless they have something to back it up. If not, they would have gone out of business by now. Plus they did earn some credibility breaking the John Edwards affair…

Video: Obama Accepts McChrystal’s Resignation – Petraeus Takes Over

No surprises here:

President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal “with considerable regret” and nominated Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command. The moves come in the wake of the revelation that Rolling Stone magazine would publish politically explosive remarks made by the general and his aides about key administration officials.

While it’s hard to argue with McChrystal’s reported positions on his civilian leaders it’s also hard to argue that the behavior captured in the Rolling Stone piece is acceptable. This is an unfortunate end to an honorable career.

McChrystal Meeting With Obama at The White House

The general is meeting with Obama now:

The White House has asked the Pentagon to make a list of possible replacements for Gen. Stanley McChrystal because President Barack Obama wants to be ready if he decides to fire the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, a senior administration official told CNN Wednesday.

McChrystal is unlikely to survive the fallout from remarks he made about colleagues in a magazine profile to be published Friday, a Pentagon source who has ongoing contacts with the general told CNN earlier.

Few expect him to walk away from this meeting with his job despite a heroic record of service. Eliot A. Cohen wraps it up pretty well in Why McChrystal Has to Go:

Gen. McChrystal’s just-published interview in Rolling Stone magazine is an appalling violation of norms of civilian-military relations. To read it is to wince, repeatedly—at the mockery of the vice president and the president’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the sniping directed toward the U.S. ambassador, at a member of his staff who, when asked whom the general was having dinner with in Paris said, “Some French minister. It’s so [expletive deleted] gay.” The quotes from Gen. McChrystal’s underlings bespeak a staff so clueless, swaggering and out of control that a wholesale purge looks to be indicated.

That he and his staff would think and say these things – privately – is not the least bit surprising. However, allowing this behavior to occur over an extended period of time in the presence of a journalist is actually pretty shocking. It’s also a bit surprising that McChrystal expressed no concern or regret to Rolling Stone after his pre-publication review of the piece. Perhaps he saw it coming and was resigned to his fate. It’s impossible to know what the general was thinking (at least until the book comes out) but I think Joe Klein probably has it right:

This is an extraordinary man, with the perfect skill set necessary for the mission in Afghanistan: a thorough knowledge of counterinsurgency and deep experience in special operations. But there is another side to McChrystal: he is so focused on his real job that he hasn’t spent sufficient time learning how to play the public relations game. He speaks his mind; in private conversations, I’ve found, he is incapable of fudging the truth. This leads to a certain myopia, an innocence regarding the not-so-brave new world of the media. He spoke his mind during a question and answer session in London last autumn, expressing his skepticism about Vice President Biden’s preference for a smaller force in Afghanistan, with a heavy emphasis on special operations. And now he has been caught by a Rolling Stone reporter, speaking his mind on a number of subjects.

Of course, there is a significant difference between speaking one’s mind and insubordination and McChrystal and his staff have strayed – well, charged – into the latter. The resulting fallout will have an impact far beyond the personalities involved and may be one of the defining moments of this war.

Unhappy Obama Summons Gen. Stanley McChrystal to Washington Over Rolling Stone Article

Updates:
Marc Ambinder has posted the Rolling Stone article – The Runaway General.

NY Daily News: NBC News reported that Duncan Boothby quit his role on the general’s public relations team. According to a senior military official, he was “asked to resign.”

Politico: Rolling Stone’s executive editor on Tuesday said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal did not raise any objections to a new article that repeatedly quotes him criticizing the administration.

HP: Afghanistan’s president believes that U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the “best commander” of the nearly 9-year-old war and hopes that President Barack Obama doesn’t decide to replace him, the Afghan leader’s spokesman said Tuesday.

First Read: Sen. John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown Tuesday that Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s critical comments about the White House were “a mistake” and “poor judgment.”

Thomas P.M. Barnett: I just read the Rolling Stone piece and found the tone of disrespect somewhat stunning.

It isn’t looking good for the general:

The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has been summoned to the White House to explain biting and unflattering remarks he made to a freelance writer about President Barack Obama and others in the Obama administration.

The face-to-face comes as pundits are already calling for McChrystal to resign for insubordination.

McChrystal has been instructed to fly from Kabul to Washington today to attend Obama’s regular monthly security team meeting tomorrow at the White House

It sounds like McChrystal wasn’t pulling any punches – and let his aides get far too friendly with a visiting reporter:

In the eight-page article, released to reporters on Monday ahead of publication, McChrystal appears to belittle Vice President Joe Biden and accuses Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, of undermining his war plan within the administration.

Asked by the Rolling Stone reporter about what he now feels of the war strategy advocated by Biden last fall – fewer troops, more drone attacks – the article reports that McChrystal and his aides attempted to come up with a good one-liner to dismiss the question. “Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal reportedly jokes. “Who’s that?”

Later in the article, McChrystal turns more serious when asked about cables sent last fall to Washington by Eikenberry. The cables called into question the major troop increase advocated by McChrystal’s team and the U.S.’s backing of Afghan President Hamid Karzai – views that the ambassador had not previously raised with McChrystal or his staff.

“I like Karl, I’ve known him for years, but they’d never said anything like that to us before,” McChrystal is quoted as saying. “Here’s one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’”

McChrystal issued a statement last night:

He said he has enormous respect for the Obama administration, and the piece fell short of his principles of “personal honor and professional integrity.”

“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened,” said McChrystal, adding that he remains “committed to ensuring” the successful outcome of the almost nine-year-old Afghan war.

Reaction:

Marc Ambinder
What in the heck was Gen. Stanley McChrystal thinking? I mean, I know what he was thinking: he was tired of being the victim of what he believes is a concerted effort on behalf of Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and others to undermine everything he was given 18 months to do. He was tired of being perceived in the press as a neoconservative killer, Dick Cheney’s hired assassin, or disloyal to President Obama and his staff. He was angry at being blamed for leaking the draft of his report to the President to Bob Woodward. (He did NOT leak the document). He was miffed that a large number of mid-ranking soldiers and battalion commanders and enlisted guys didn’t support his strategy.

The Moderate Voice
Relations between McChrystal and the White House have never been stellar. So let’s just say that now in the wake of this profile they are less stellar — a lot less stellar — than they’ve been ever before.

Hot Air
Compare and contrast the McChrystal/Eikenberry relationship with that of Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, whom Foreign Policy noted last year never allowed their disagreements to go public. This isn’t the first time McChrystal’s spoken publicly about matters the White House would prefer remained in-house, either. Remember last year when The One freaked out over his speech in London calling for more troops?

The Campaign Spot
Many people I know think highly of McChrystal, and he has earned his accolades. But a general in the American armed forces cannot, on the record, mock or deride thevice president and the U.S. ambassador, much less the president of the United States. You and I can; we’re just some schmoes; we don’t report to him in the chain of command. I’m sure many generals have thought many colorful expressions of criticism toward presidents over the years, but they cannot blab them to reporters.

Outside the Beltway
What happens to McChrystal at this point is up to Obama, but given the General’s public statements it’s hard for me to see how the White House and Pentagon can keep him in place. This is insubordination, and there’s really only one appropriate response.

CENTCOM Launches Blog – Sort of

Gen. David H. Petraeus kicked it off with this post:

Here you will find news, commentary, and reflection on important events throughout the CENTCOM area of responsibility, from Egypt in the West to Pakistan in the East, and from Kazakhstan in the North to Yemen and the waters off Somalia to the South. Of course, we will also provide extensive coverage of our ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and the work of our troopers deployed overseas.

As CENTCOM Commander, I look forward to lending my thoughts and perspective to the discussion on events in this vital region. I also look forward to reading contributions from leaders in the field, subject matter experts, regional scholars, and troopers. If you are reading this, consider yourself a member of CENTCOM’s online family. This blog is for you, and we hope you will take a moment to join the conversation.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The blog is a good thing but it is very poorly integrated with centcom.mil. It’s also kind of surprising that they chose to launch it nearly devoid of content. The initial post by the general was posted on the 16th and it’s the only content on the site. I would have suggested launching with a full range of categories and content (20-30 posts at least) to give people a feel for what the editorial team has to offer – and a reason to come back. The first impression here is – well, there isn’t one.

It would appear that they have the tools but the strategy is lacking. I hope more content is around the corner but my experience is that blogs that launch poorly tend to fade quickly.