Politics
Election 2012:Obama national security record gives Romney limited opportunities to challenge commander in chief
Democrats and the administration have rejected those demands. Attorney General Eric Holder instead has appointed U.S. Attorneys Ron Machen and Rod Rosenstein to oversee the investigation into who leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound flight.
“Considering how closely in time these items were published and how favorable of an impression they left about the president’s approach to national security, it is not unreasonable to ask whether these leaks were part of a broader effort to paint President Obama, in the midst of an election year, as a strong leader on national security issues,” Sen. John McCain, Obama’s 2008 presidential rival, said Tuesday in a blistering Senate floor speech.
The Arizona lawmaker, who is the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has called the leaks “almost unprecedented” and insisted last week that he couldn’t think of “any time that I have seen such breaches of ongoing national security programs as has been the case here.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told reporters Tuesday that the leaks “create a lack of confidence on the part of people around the world” who are cooperating with the United States.
Hardly, say Democrats.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said there is not “one shred of evidence” that individuals around Obama leaked information to enhance the president’s reputation.
“They are (Republicans) just blankly asserting it and hoping it sticks. And the reason they are hoping it sticks is because the president has a very strong record on national security,” Smith said in an interview. “His record makes that clear and the polls make it clear that people feel that way.”
