Oliver North, Asshole of the Day for June 4, 2014

by TeaPartyCat (Follow @TeaPartyCat)

It’s one thing when someone criticizes someone in another party for something their own party has done. It’s another thing when that person is criticizing the other for something they themselves have done, like say Dick Cheney saying Hillary must be held accountable for 4 people dead in one attack in Benghazi, whereas he never held himself or his administration accountable for all the attacks that happened on their watch at embassies overseas that had a much higher death count (and not including 9/11 which happened here and cost almost 3000 lives).

And with that in mind, consider the criticism over Obama’s negotiations with the Taliban for Bowe Bergdahl’s release. You can’t just pretend that presidents, including Republicans like Nixon making a prisoner trade with the Viet Cong for John McCain’s release, haven’t done the same things in times of war, especially as a war was winding down. And it’s one thing for a politician or pundit to snipe about this particular case, but it’s another when Oliver North does it:

Speaking to former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) on his Newsmax program, North demanded to know if a ransom was paid to terrorists in order to execute the swap. “Was there a ransom paid?“ North said. "Did the government of the United States, either directly or indirectly, finance a terrorist organization?” …He strongly disputed the characterization of Bergdahl as a "prisoner of war,” asserting that he was in fact a “hostage” of the Haqqani terrorist network, which is allied with the Taliban.

And then North continued later telling Hannity:

He said Obama might believe “unilateral surrender is the way to end the war.” He once again demanded to know whether a ransom was paid to the Haqqanis. “And if a ransom was paid, either at our behest or with American tax dollars, it means this government is causing to be funded a criminal enterprise that kills Americans, the Haqqanis,” North said.

Calling the Taliban a terrorist organization in this context doesn’t make a lot of sense. We’re fighting the Taliban because they were the government who hosted Al Qaeda on 9/11. Our war with them is as the former (and possibly future) government of Afghanistan. And in that context, this makes sense as a prisoner trade.

But putting aside that argument, Oliver North knows a little something about using American tax dollars to fund a criminal enterprise that kills Americans, because he was right in the middle of such an operation in the good old days of St. Ronnie of Reagan and the Iran-Contra scandal. The independent counsel which investigated said (via Right Wing Watch):

The Iran/contra affair concerned two secret Reagan Administration policies whose operations were coordinated by National Security Council staff. The Iran operation involved efforts in 1985 and 1986 to obtain the release of Americans held hostage in the Middle East through the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran, despite an embargo on such sales. The contra operations from 1984 through most of 1986 involved the secret governmental support of contra military and paramilitary activities in Nicaragua, despite congressional prohibition of this support.

Yeah. That happened. And yet while North faced charges over Iran-Contra, there wasn’t an entire news channel devoted to Reagan’s impeachment, and after he left office Republicans tried to name every street, bridge, airport and blade of grass in America after Reagan.

So, for accusing Obama of some of the very crimes he and Reagan committed, and without any proof, Oliver North is the Asshole of the Day.

It is Oliver North’s first time as Asshole of the Day, but he is the 3rd (in a row) to win for comments regarding the release of Bowe Bergdahl. Previous winners were Sarah Palin for being for his release until Obama did it and Brian Kilmeade for saying Bergdahl’s dad’s beard looked like he was in the Taliban.

Full story: Talking Points Memo