Marie Harf Forced Out As State Department Spokeswoman

 

Yes, Marie Harf is leaving us, at least as a public figure in front of the cameras. She's been moved out of the public eye..ummm, promoted to a “new role” as senior adviser for strategic communications to Secretary of State John Kerry, where she will likely have to listen to him talk at length, poor thing, but at least won't have to face all those awkward questions in public any more.

This, after being denied the usual promotion to Jan Psaki's old job after Psaki moved on to become White House Communications Director...heartrending.

Marie Harf was at least entertaining, which is more than I can say for most of the current Regime. It was particularly comical when she was thrown a question on some of the ridiculous things she said trying to defend the regime's foreign policy faux paux. Her forehead would wrinkle, her eyes would grimace, those glasses of hers would slide halfway down her nose and you could literally see the tension as she tried to come up with something that wouldn't get her in even more trouble.It was like watching a hamster desperately running on the little wheel in her cage.

Some of the FOX news folks had some fun at her expense, compiling a video of some of her more famous moments:

June 3, 2014: In response to questioning by Fox News at the briefing, Harf downplayed criticism of the recently announced trade of five Taliban fighters for Bergdahl.
She downplayed "conflicting reports" and "rumor" when asked about accounts from Bergdahl's platoon-mates that he walked off base.

"There's a lot of rumor and telephone game that's being played here," she said.
After continued questioning, she said: "It happened five years ago."

Bergdahl would later be charged with desertion. Former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal also told Fox News this week it was his initial understanding as well that Bergdahl walked off his base before he disappeared.

Sept. 25, 2014: Harf was asked, in an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, to respond to a warning that the U.S. would lose if President Obama did not approve ground troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq.

"I'm not exactly sure what 'lose' means," Harf said, arguing the solution is "targeted military action." She said the prior U.S. engagement in Iraq, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops on the ground, couldn't prevent terrorism.

Feb. 16, 2015: Speaking on MSNBC's "Hardball," Harf suggested that jobs programs are needed to help take on the Islamic State.

"We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," she said. "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --"

Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims." She acknowledged there's "no easy solution" and said the U.S. would still take out ISIS leaders. But Harf said: "If we can help countries work at the root causes of this -- what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?"

Feb. 17, 2015: Responding to critics of her remarks on helping fight terror by creating jobs, Harf said her statements were just "too nuanced" for her critics.

"Longer term, we cannot kill every terrorist around the world, nor should we try," Harf said on CNN. "How do you get at the root causes of this? Look, it might be too nuanced an argument for some, like I've seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out there, but it's really the smart way that Democrats, Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat this." Harf went on to say the approach doesn't fit "into a sound bite."

March 6, 2015: Fielding questions at the briefing about ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of private email, Harf was asked if the department would release a 2011 cable -- obtained by Fox News -- showing her office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons.

"I think everyone can read it at FoxNews.com," she quipped.

She then assured, "That was in no way an endorsement," before adding: "I don't mean to be flip about it."

When you're the Regime's foreign policy spokesmouth and even Chris Matthews isn't buying what's coming out of your mouth, it really is time to get out of Dodge. And the Regime figured that out, even if Marie Harf didn't.

And that must puzzle her. She did all the right things...total Democrat, major Lefty, a real true believer.  Why,she even wrote her college thesis on the awful way all those wack job Right Wingers and Evangelicals support Israel and how bad it is for U.S.foreign policy! How much more qualified for an Obama State Department gig could she be?

And then straight outta college and into the Obama Campaign as a loyal soldier Down For The Cause, and then it all explodes as she gets banished off stage, with maybe a quick bit on MSNBC every once in a blue moon if she's lucky.

I've seen some mean things (OK, some of them were pretty funny) on the 'Net about how stupid Marie Harf is. I don't think that's it at all.

There were other things that screwed her up, if you ask me.

When you believe in the godking from Chi-town and the accompanying dogma as much as she does, you have to really suspend belief on certain things that have come to light in the last six years or so. To an extent, you have to convince yourself that red is really is blue, that right is left and that the sun rises in the west. To do this convincingly, you have to be a really good liar, good enough to sell it to others.

Mr. Bill is a great example. There's a certain percentage of America's population he could urinate on in public, remark to them about that sudden rain shower we're  having and get away with it. Yes, I know, he's a pathological liar but at this point he's trained himself to actually believe what he's saying is truth, and that's invaluable to him.

Plus Mr. Bill has another great tool that makes this work, an astounding memory. At his second inaugural, the teleprompters died, but Bill Clinton was able to rattle off the entire speech from memory. Can you imagine Barack Obama/Barry Soetoro pulling that one off?


Just compare Bill's skills to those of  Hillary, who's also a serial prevaricator but who  frequently gets caught at it because her delivery lacks Bill's utter conviction and/or she forgets whatever lie it was she told before.

So therein lay Marie Harf's problem. Being a True Believer, she was, on the surface at least, able to stick to the Regime script, but she lacked Bill Clinton's performance ability, and so did the people she was assigned to try and cover up for.  And, being one of the Entitled, there was a part of her that always resented even having to try, and it showed...'Hey, I've got a Masters, I wear glasses and I'm smarter than all of you dammit ! That's why I'm Deputy State Department deputy spokeswoman! '

Ah, but no more, Marie Harf. At least backstage working with the fog machines, you're still part of the show and afterwards, who knows? Maybe a book deal or a gig at MSNBC or one of the alphabet networks.

Because being a True Believer and Down for The Struggle means never having to say you're sorry. Just ask George Stephanopoulos.

Best of luck at the new job.