Howard Kurtz: Robert Gates’ Book Is A Betrayal; Erick Erickson: Oh Simmer Down

“Only in Washington do people wring their hands over tell-all books before writing their own.” – Erick Erickson

Fox Contributor Howard Kurtz and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night to discuss Robert Gates’ new book containing revelations about President Obama and his disposition toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Kurtz in the above clip and throughout the whole segment maintains that this represents a violation of trust, a betrayal of Obama’s confidence and, ultimately, is damaging to the operation of the office of the President.

Erickson, on the other hand, is more blasé, as Bill puts it.

Well, you know I think considering what the Obama administration is doing – spying on all of us with the NSA, there is a deep bit of irony in that, but look, the president is going to get candid advice for people. Going into this there is expectation books may be written short of signing people into nondisclosure agreements I’m not sure he could do to cabinet advisor he’s to know that’s going to happen at some point, some more favorable some less favorable. But when they’re inside the White House, inside the bubble, he has every reason to expect he’s going to get and give candid advice and that’s just the nature of the beast in Washington.

Erickson tells us by email that “Only in Washington do people wring their hands over tell all books before writing their own.” Indeed. As he pointed out earlier in the segment, these type of books are basically de rigueur at this point, so acting all surprised and hurt, as the media has, is a bit silly. MSNBC has been particularly focused on the “betrayal” aspect over the last 48 hours. Yesterday morning, as I noted on Twitter, the network opened every single segment about the Gates book with footage showing him accepting the Medal of Freedom from the President.

And why, you might wonder, are the press so focused on the “Gates the meanie” aspect of this story rather than the actual, and devastating, revelations about President Obama? Of course you don’t wonder, because it’s patently obvious. It’s classic misdirection. Forget what the man has to say, let’s point out his violation of the bro code.

It would be silly and embarrassing if it weren’t so disgusting.


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