The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

“When one with honeyed words but evil mind
Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.”
― Euripides, Orestes

 



This week's winner, Joshuapundit's   White House On Benghazi: ' No More Questions!! '     is my reaction to testimony and statements from SecDef Leon Panetta, JCS Chief General Dempsey, the president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Benghazi debacle that all directly contradict each other...and the White House's insistence  that we all move along now, no more questions.   Here's a slice:

 The White House is getting downright testy about U.S. Senators (not to mention the rest of us) continuing to ask unanswered questions about the Benghazi debacle.

White House spokeshole Jay Carney had a major hissy fit after Senator Lindsay Graham threatened to put a hold on the nominations of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan unless the administration was more forthcoming:

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday blasted Senate Republicans for threatening to block Defense Secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, nominated to head the CIA, in a quest for more information about what President Obama did on the night that terrorists killed four Americans in the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

“We have answered these questions,” Mr. Carney said. “The president found out about the attack in Benghazi in a meeting with his secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs from his national security adviser. He immediately ordered those two leaders to take every action necessary to try to position forces in a way that could assist in Benghazi and also potentially take action, if necessary, elsewhere, because of all that was enfolding around the region.”

He added that Mr. Obama was “regularly updated and kept appraised [sic] of events in Benghazi and in the region throughout that evening and into the night.”

“Those are the facts,” Mr. Carney said.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told lawmakers last week that he didn’t have any communication with the White House on the night of the Benghazi attack after informing Mr. Obama of the assault during a meeting at the White House late in the afternoon.


To use Mr. Panetta's exact words, "He left it up to us."

 So Jay Carney is either misinformed or lying. Or both.
Actually, I assume President Obama probably voted present that evening, based on past performance. The questions I want answered are far different.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Amity Schlaes with The Small Presidency  submitted by Joshuapundit. It's a wondefful piece on why returning to small governmewnt may be the ultimate answer to America's problems, by a superb writer whose upcoming biography of Calvin Coolidge I can't wait to get my hands on.


OK, here are this week’s full results. Only the Right Planet was unable to vote this week , but was not subject to the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3  votes! Joshuapundit –White House On Benghazi: ' No More Questions!! '
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room - Year of the Political Snake
• Third place  with 2 votes – The Right Planet- I Want My Machine Guns Back
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room- Explosive new book: Obama administration up to its neck in covert acts that caused Benghazi deaths
• Fifth place  with 1 vote – The Razor-Pope Benedict XVI Resigns
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews- Bibis' conundrum: a forecast attempted
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right-The Problem With The ObamaCare Birth Control Regulation
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – The Irony, It Burns
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –Just Don't Repeat What They Say ...
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Gay Patriot –Why doesn’t City of LA attend to its uneven sidewalks?
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! –  The Commonalities Between Cop Killer Christopher Dorner Worship and Obama Worship
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Political Commentator –  If WWII ended today, would it still be called a 'Surrender Table'?

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Amity Schlaes-The Small Presidency   submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 2 votes – Michael Totten – Radical Islam’s Global Reaction: The Push for Blasphemy Laws   submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with  1 2/3 votes – The Dissident Frogman –President Obama, he goes shooting all the time    submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes -Allergic To Bull-The Map of Hate   submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote Dr. Benjamin Carson - Dr. Benjamin Carson's Speech at the National Prayer Breakfast   submitted by The Right Planet
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - The People's Cube –Cardinals Mull Obama Papacy   submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - WSJ/William Kristol & Peter Wehner –The Absentee Commander in Chief  submitted by Bookworm Room
• Sixth Place  with 2/3 vote -Latitude blog/New York Times –Pakistan's Media Police submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD 
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote - Kimberly Bloom Jackson/American Thinker  – Children Deserve to Be Defended submitted by The Noisy Room
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Joel Kotkin/New Geography.com –The Cities Winning The Battle For The Fastest Growing High-Wage Sector In The U.S  submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Michelle Malkin –Latest embarrassment from the ‘legitimate news media’: Sarah Palin joining Al Jazeera  submitted by The Mellow Jihadi

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and with short takes and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.....'cause we're cool like that!