Truly a Scandal

Carol Platt Liebau | October 10, 2008 10:02 AM

The Washington Times' Barbara Slavin writes about how Barack Obama secretly tried to persuade Iraq not to negotiate with the president about keeping or withdrawing troops from Iraq. He urged the government to wait until a new president was sworn in next year. In essence, he went over the president's head, during wartime, to try to conduct his own foreign policy -- one that was politically advantageous to him.

The Obama people will no doubt try to spin this as a simply "separation of powers" issue -- that Barack was trying to make sure that Congress would have input on the deal as well as the president.

But the fact remains: If that was his interest, there was plenty of opportunity to state it openly and boldly here in America, without going behind the president (and the country's) back to try to undermine the American policy in secret.

Barack's political interest in the outcome was clear: Troops returning home after a successful surge only highlighted the mistake that his own "defeat and retreat" plan would have been. And so he felt compelled to take stealthy steps -- even at the cost of the unanimity and cohesiveness of American foreign policy -- for his own political advantage.

It's becoming increasingly clear that nothing is sacred to Barack -- except winning.