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Don't Say "Softball!"
In our Pentagon military analyst doc dump thread, Kevin H comes up with a beauty. You can see it here.
In the exchange, someone (the name is redacted) emails public relations officials in the Pentagon with news that Jed Babbin, who was deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration and a participant in the analyst program ("one of our military analysts," the emailer calls him), would be guest hosting the Michael Medved radio show. And Babbin wanted to interview Gen. George Casey, then the commanding officer in Iraq. Babbin is the editor of Human Events.
But just in case Pentagon officials were worried that the interview might not be worth doing, the emailer made the case: "this would be a softball interview and the show is 8th or 9th in the nation."
Allison Barber, a Public Affairs official at the Pentagon, responded quickly:
Thanks for sending this.Just fyi, probably wouldn't put "softball" interview in writing. If that got out it would compromise jed and general casey.
The emailer, somewhat chastened, replied "check, check." Not bad advice at all.
Note: As for who this emailer is, it's unclear. The Pentagon redacted email addresses in the release, so it could very well be an official in the public affairs office emailing from a private address. The use of the phrase "our military analysts" certainly suggests that.













Allison Barber, the "public affairs official" is actually a political appointee. She earned her Bushie stripes by coordinating a "not rehearsed" teleconference photo op with Bush and the troops that was clearly rehearsed.
Fron ThinkProgress, October 2005:
May 12, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ouch.
May 12, 2008 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice of them to let Pat Tillman to provide a little bit of PR spin as well...
May 12, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please don't say "softball". We prefer "kid gloves" or "butt-kissing Bushie sycophancy."
May 12, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
This would be hilarious if it wasn't TRUE!
Uh oh, did I just put that in writing?
PEACE
May 12, 2008 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did anyone believe those guys?
I knew they were drinking the Kool-aide right away and always turned them off.
But I loved reading that email exposing the spinners.
May 12, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
ixnay on the oftball-say!
May 12, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps someone in Bush's office should send Barber an email suggesting that (s?)he not use email to criticize corruption by a member of the Bush administration.
Priceless!
May 12, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
All you need to know about the geniuses behind the Iraq War is in this incident: Barber writes an email about "softball" interviews in order to warn someone about the dangers of writing emails about "softball" interviews.
May 13, 2008 1:28 AM | Reply | Permalink