Pettiness Knows No Statute of Limitations

Pompeo just spoke on his plane about his NPR meltdown, said “there’s a lot of history with NPR” and that he hopes ⁦@NPRKelly⁩ “finds peace.”

Comments via ⁦@TracyKWilkinson⁩: pic.twitter.com/QAG3CDWYTw

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) January 29, 2020

Yeah, there is a history with Pompeo and NPR:

In addition, we found that congressional voices opposed to the deal were more than fairly represented, and in fact, a large chunk of the voices opposed to the deal came from Congress. That is important because Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Associated Press that he had tried to get NPR to interview him and was turned down, and critics of NPR have cited that as evidence that NPR was hostile to voices opposed to the deal, thanks to the Ploughshares grant.

NPR confirms the congressman was booked for an August interview and then that interview was canceled, because there were too many other interviews scheduled. But that does not mean NPR was featuring only voices in favor of the deal. Days after the Pompeo interview was canceled, NPR interviewed Sen. Charles Schumer, a top Democrat from New York and one of the most vocal and respected Jewish members of Congress, who had just decided to oppose the deal. That was by far the more important story, since the vast majority of Democrats supported the president in voting for the deal.

Overall, these are the congressional voices opposed to the deal who were heard on NPR air, in either sound bites or interviews:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Ben Cardin (both when he supported the deal, and after he switched sides) (D-Md.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), Rep. David Brat (R-Va.), Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Calif.), and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.).

Sorta sounds like Pompeo didn't get his 15 minutes of fame with NPR 5 years ago, so today:  fuck them.  His statement now is equally self-serving and suspicious, and doesn't square with the State Department's refusal to let an NPR reporter on the plane for the Secretary's latest trip on behalf of the country.  NPR asked for information about the decision making process for determining an NPR reporter was not worthy, but the answer is fairly clear:  there was no process, there was only spite.

Which may sound like a dandy way to run a government when you have no idea how any bureaucracy, especially a government of, by, and for the people, should work.  But it's a recipe for disaster and chaos and failure in even the smallest locally owned business.

There's no other mention of Rep. Pompeo in that article.  The AP article it links is no longer available, but there's nothing to indicate pressure from Pompeo forced NPR to reveal the grant from Ploughshares.  One can assume the Secretary is aping the POTUS and inflating his importance (he even speaks of himself in the third person) in the matter, the better to make him the aggrieved party who is due an apology; the one wronged, rather than the one doing wrong now.  That's consistent with his statement that Kelly is responsible for this contretemps, that he is an innocent lamb and she the wolf who hoped to slaughter him.

Which is also of a piece with hoping Kelly "finds peace."  The clear implication is that she is, in the older use of the word (when "hysterectomy" meant removing the source of "hysteria"), an "hysterical woman."  Hoping she "finds peace" is a really smarmy way for some evangelical Christians to place themselves in the judgment seat while still being "compassionate" for those benighted souls who don't know Jesus the way they smugly claim to.  It sets you above and apart, and more importantly sets your target below and among the damned; or at least those who need to see the light, as you do.

These people really do think the sun shines out of their ass and the rest of us should constantly praise them for that.