Sources on Capitol Hill praised the White House for “finally waking
up” to the fact that former National Security Council member Brett
McGurk was unfit to serve as the next ambassador to Iraq.
McGurk, who withdrew his name from consideration late Monday afternoon, was caught in a series of leaked emails engaging in an affair with a former Wall Street Journal reporter while the duo were stationed in Iraq and he was serving as a senior Bush administration official.
The emails raised questions about McGurk’s judgment and led to concerns that he could have been trading sensitive information for sexual favors.
“This nomination has been in free fall since the emails became public,” said one GOP aide close to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering McGurk’s nomination.
White House Press Secretary “Jay Carney’s insistence just a few days ago that the President stood behind the nominee looks pretty silly now and makes him look out of the loop,” added the source, who noted that even Democratic senators John Kerry (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) “were already backing away at that point.”
Given the rising chorus of dismay over ongoing national security leaks from within the Obama White House, “the last thing senators wanted to do was vote for an Iraq ambassador that joked about trading classified information for sexual favors,” said the aide. “The White House woke up to reality over the weekend, and they obviously pressured McGurk to step aside to end this embarrassment.”
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/obama-nominee-for-ambassador-to-iraq-withdraws-nomination/
McGurk, who withdrew his name from consideration late Monday afternoon, was caught in a series of leaked emails engaging in an affair with a former Wall Street Journal reporter while the duo were stationed in Iraq and he was serving as a senior Bush administration official.
The emails raised questions about McGurk’s judgment and led to concerns that he could have been trading sensitive information for sexual favors.
“This nomination has been in free fall since the emails became public,” said one GOP aide close to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering McGurk’s nomination.
White House Press Secretary “Jay Carney’s insistence just a few days ago that the President stood behind the nominee looks pretty silly now and makes him look out of the loop,” added the source, who noted that even Democratic senators John Kerry (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) “were already backing away at that point.”
Given the rising chorus of dismay over ongoing national security leaks from within the Obama White House, “the last thing senators wanted to do was vote for an Iraq ambassador that joked about trading classified information for sexual favors,” said the aide. “The White House woke up to reality over the weekend, and they obviously pressured McGurk to step aside to end this embarrassment.”
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/obama-nominee-for-ambassador-to-iraq-withdraws-nomination/
No comments:
Post a Comment