DISGRACEFUL - WHAT ELSE CAN ONE SAY? - AT 6:01 P.M. ET:  The ability of the Obama administration to embarrass itself seems endless.  If only this creativity were applied to governing, we'd be in much better shape.

The president has responded to plans for Congressional probes into the Fort Hood shootings in a manner that is entirely tasteless and inappropriate.  From AP, via the Washington Times:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

COMMENT:  Utterly patronizing and outrageous.  Can you imagine the reaction if George W. Bush had made such a statement?  The people calling for a Congressional probe are serious men and women with fine national-security credentials.  They know that a probe by the executive branch means that the government will be investigating itself.  They want their own investigation, and that's entirely appropriate and necessary.  To charge them with "political theater" is outrageous.

Even more outrageous is to suggest that those who died on 9-11 will get only "political stagecraft" in a Congressional probe.  They'll probably get a much more thorough investigation than Mr. Obama's Justice Department will award them.

Wasn't it the Democrats who were always demanding Congressional investigations during the Bush years?  Now, with the shoe on the other foot, they resist. 

Yes, Mr. President, "the stakes are far too high."  They're far too high to trust the truth to an investigation by your leftist appointees.  Bring on Congress.

November 14, 2009