Man, shit seems to be falling apart everywhere. You thought things were uncivil down here in P&R did ya? Well, you guys obviously have not been speaking with Hillary Clinton's top aide. http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/hillary-clinton-aide-tells-reporter-to-fuck-off Hillary Clinton Aide Tells Reporter To âFuck Offâ And âHave A Good Lifeâ As the State Department's story about what happened in Benghazi crumbles, Clinton's personal spokesperson, Philippe Reines, loses his temper. âHave a good day. And by good day I mean Fuck Off.â Posted Sep 24, 2012 1:11pm EDT On Sunday morning, BuzzFeed correspondent Michael Hastings emailed Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide and personal spokesman at the State Department, asking a series of pointed questions about State's handling of the Benghazi fiasco, and Reines' over-the-top attack on CNN. The emails quickly got personal, with Reines calling Hastings an "unmitigated asshole" before an exchange of harsh words on both sides. The email chain concluded with Reines writing that Hastings should "Fuck Off" and "Have a nice life." The full exchange (with one typo fixed) is below. From: Michael Hastings 
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:32 AM
 To: Reines, Philippe I 
 Subject: Request for comment 

 ______________________________________ From: Michael Hastings Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:04 PM
 To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J 
Subject: Re: Request for comment Philippe: Thanks for getting back to me. No, you read my email correctly--I found your statement to CNN offensive. From my perspective, the scandal here is that the State Department had such inadequate security procedures in place that four Americans were killed. And then the Ambassador's diary--and who knows what else--was left behind for anyone to pick up. Thankfully, it was CNN--and not Al Qaeda or some other militia--that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene--material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out--is completely in line with practices of good journalism. I don't know how involved Arwa Damon has been in this. But for what it's worth, Arwa is one of the best war correspondents working today. She's consistently risked her life to get these stories, and to find out what actually happens in these conflict zones.I do agree that the media has lots of responsibilities, and CNN fulfilled its responsibility by returning the diary while still managing to inform the American public of newsworthy information. So it's unfortunate that you are trying to make a scapegoat out of CNN. That State was forced to flee Benghazi--again, because of such inadequate security, leaving behind all sorts of sensitive information--tells us more about DoS than CNN. The misinformation here seems largely to be coming from State and the administration. The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren't doing their jobs well. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up--whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it's hard for me to say at this point.
 All the best, 
Michael ______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote: 
Why do you bother to ask questions you've already decided you know the answers to? ______________________________________ From: Michael Hastings Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:50 PM
 To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J 
Subject: Re: Request for comment 

 Why don't you give answers that aren't bullshit for a change? ______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:38 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:
 I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you're an unmitigated asshole. How's that for a non-bullshit response? Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day. And by good day, I mean Fuck Off ______________________________________ From: Michael Hastings Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 01:40 PM
 To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J 
Subject: Re: Request for comment Hah--I now understand what women say about you, too! Any new complaints against you lately? ______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote: 
Talk about bullshit - answer me this: Do you only traffic in lies, or are you on the ground floor of creating them? And since Fuck Off wasn't clear enough, I'm done with you. Inside of 5 minutes when I can log into my desktop, you'll be designated as Junk Mail. Have a good life Michael. ______________________________________ From: Michael Hastings 
 Date: Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:50 PM
 Subject: Re: Request for comment 
To: "Reines, Philippe I" 
Cc: "Nuland, Victoria J"
 I'll take that as a non-denial denial. All the best, Michael
Has anyone else noticed that liberals are getting a bit testy as we approach the defeat of their fearless leader?
A fearless leader vs. a "leader" who wants to outsource foreign policy to nut&yahoos in exchange of nut&yahoos outsourcing the doing of their wars, which one is better?
I like the reparte. It shows you how full of shit the adminstration is... about everything. The reporters can't even get straight off the record or background answers out of Clinton or Obama. CNN is correct.. either the CIA is inept or the administration is. But the politics of jumping on the Romney story shows you how crooked the editors with the big media are. The incompetence and resultant deaths should have been the story from the beginning... not hidden in email exchanges.
I don't think either one of these characters comes off looking very good. It's unprofessional for a State spokesperson to get that personal. The Buzzfeed guy also sounded like a jerk though. I think it was a tough choice for CNN. They recovered the Ambassador's personal diary, normally something you wouldn't think it would be acceptable to use. But the diary contradicted the government's explanation for the attack that killed him. Apparently the family refused permission to use it, but CNN had no intentions of not using it. It seems incredible to me we didn't have a company of Marines in there the morning after, protecting the site and shooting anyone who got too close. What were the fucking libyans going to do, tell us we couldn't? For that matter, it's hard for me to accept that the administration wasn't aware in real time what was happening. They could have sent in a couple of jets to shoot up the crowd or at least dump tear gas on them. For all his boasting about "killing Osama", Obama is a weak leader who dithers.
The Clinton's are trash and have always been. The people who hang around the Clinton's also are trash. Doesn't surprise me at all.