Left Ignores Tips that McCain Will Visit Iraq, Screams Bloody Murder When It's Obama's Turn

Did He Really Just Do That? screams the headline at Talking Points Memo.

This is the lead on a story just out over the Reuters wire ...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Friday that his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is likely to be in Iraq over the weekend.

The Obama campaign has tried to cloak the Illinois senator's trip in some measure of secrecy for security reasons. The White House, State Department and Pentagon do not announce senior officials' visits to Iraq in advance.

"I believe that either today or tomorrow -- and I'm not privy to his schedule -- Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators" who make up a congressional delegation, McCain told a campaign fund-raising luncheon.

The Reuters piece hints at it. But if Obama is going to be in Iraq this weekend, this is a major breach on McCain's part. As a knowledgeable insider notes ...

If it is true that Obama is going to Iraq this weekend, it is a very serious mistake for McCain to have disclosed it publically.

And so the outrage begins.  It's a "major breach!"  It's a "serious mistake"!  Predictably, every other leftist website jumps onboard.  Some of the links at Memeorandum at this hour:

Cernig / Newshoggers.com:   McCain Compromises Obama's Security

Hilzoy / Obsidian Wings:   He Said What?  —  Reuters: … Obama's schedule was not public …

THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™:   Senator John McCain Commits OPSEC Violation, Potentially Endangering …

Macranger / Macsmind:   Did McCain “drop the dime” …

Dave / Political Machine:   Was I Not Supposed To Say That?

Jed / The Jed Report:   Unfit to serve  —  It's hard to imagine that John McCain intended …

Warren Street / Blue Girl, Red State:   You Gotta Be Kidding Me—McCain Reveals That Obama *Might* Be in Iraq This Weekend

Sister Toldjah:   John McCain deliberately gives out Obama's Iraq trip information …

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:   No Word Yet From McCain Camp On McCain's Discussion Of Obama Trip Timing

Mark Kleiman / The RBC:   McCain blabs

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: McCain breaks embargo on Obama's schedule

Except that . . .

The same sort of thing has been written about John McCain before when he visited Iraq, and nobody on the left screamed outrage:

From the Los Angeles Times March 15, 2008:

McCain plans to visit Iraq this weekend on a weeklong overseas trip that includes Israel, Britain and France.

The horror!  A major breach!  A serious mistake!

From the Washington Post, November 19, 2007, from photo caption:

McCain plans to visit Iraq during the Thanksgiving holiday period.

Auggghh!!  Another major breach!  Another serious mistake!

But blowing things completely out of proportion to score cheap political shots against political adversaries is so much fun, isn't it?  It's one of the few things the left does well.

Comments

[Just another leftie]

Doesn't McCain get his mail in Iraq, tho? He is always there, so it's just safer to assume he is there staging photo ops and taking in dog-and-pony shows than casting votes in the Senate.