Gingrich and Bolton Slam Obama Administration For Wikileaks Fiasco

Newt Gingrich had harsh words for the Obama administration in reference to the Wikileaks fiasco, calling them, “shallow”, and amateurish”, this morning on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

Via The Hill’s Blog briefing Room:

Gingrich said the leaks are “a scandal of the first order” and that they demonstrate the Obama administration is “shallow” and “amateurish” when it comes to national security.

“You have a private first class who downloads a quarter million documents, and the system doesn’t say, ‘Oh, you may be over extended?’ I mean, this is a system so stupid that it ought to be a scandal of the first order,” Gingrich said. “This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous.”

He also said the U.S needs to act fast in shutting down WikiLeaks and finding Julian Assange.

While Gingrich questioned why such a thing was allowed to happen, John Bolton attacked the administration on another front in his oped, today, in The Guardian:

WikiLeaks has yet again flooded the internet with thousands of classified American documents, this time state department cables. More troubling than WikiLeaks’ latest revelation of US secrets, however, is the Obama administration’s weak, wrong-headed and erratic response. Unfortunately, the administration has acted consistently with its demonstrated unwillingness to assert and defend US interests across a wide range of threats, such as Iran and North Korea, which, ironically, the leaked cables amply document.

***

This sustained, collective inaction exemplifies the Obama administration’s all-too-common attitude towards threats to America’s international interests. The president, unlike the long line of his predecessors since Franklin Roosevelt, simply does not put national security at the centre of his political priorities. Thus, Europeans who welcomed Obama to the Oval Office should reflect on his Warren Harding-like interest in foreign policy. Europeans who believe they will never again face real security threats to their comfortable lifestyle should realise that if by chance one occurs during this administration, the president will be otherwise occupied. He will be continuing his efforts to restructure the US economy, and does not wish to be distracted by foreign affairs.

Sadly, I think the ‘stache has it right. The “international community” had better hope and pray that their lands are not threatened with hostilities until after 2012.

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Nile Gardiner gives his view of the Wikileaks situation at The Telegraph:

…there can be no doubt that Wikileaks will make the Secretary of State’s job far harder now, and will be a huge drain on the energy of the former senator from New York. She has become the public face of the Wikileaks fiasco on the world stage, and will likely remain so, as the official ultimately responsible for America’s vast diplomatic corps. And the White House has been happy to keep it that way. The president has strikingly avoided making any comment on this latest leak, the third this year, and kept his distance from what is a huge embarrassment for his administration. In fact, over Wikileaks, Barack Obama has proved as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

America’s international diplomacy has taken a massive hit in the past few days, which may take many years as well as new leadership in the White House to fully repair. And the Obama administration must carry a great deal of the blame for allowing the leaks to happen in the first place, failing to halt them once they had started, and doing nothing to bring Julian Assange to justice.

Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker weighs in: Hillary’s Long Goodbye:

While I welcome a primary challenge to President Obama from his own party, I actually feared a successful challenge by Hillary, because she could potentially win the presidency, a nightmare for those of us who closely observed her behavior over the years, starting with her role in the Watergate Committee, arguing that Richard Nixon should be denied access to legal counsel. She is ruthless, unprincipled, and far better grounded than Obama, and would be much more effective in taking America to the left than her husband was.

Despite my unwillingness to take a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that the threat of President Rodham Clinton is over, I am beginning to believe that the damage she has sustained in the WikiLeaks affair is insurmountable.

I wouldn’t count her out just yet, nor would I believe her assertions about leaving politics to do “advocacy work”. Lefties have an uncanny ability to come back from political death because their amoral supporters have no standards, and will let them get away with anything.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Doug Ross, thanks!