If there is anything more pathetic than the entirely phony “controversy” over the recent Department of Homeland Security report, it is the fact that it has now been pulled because of the Right’s ridiculous tantrum:
A contentious “Rightwing Extremism” report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers.
“The wheels came off the wagon because the vetting process was not followed,” Ms. Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
“The report is no longer out there,” she said. “An employee sent it out without authorization.”
…
“Some things in my initial days have gone very well at the department, some things have not. And that was probably the worst thing,” Ms. Napolitano told the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security on Tuesday.
“It was not authorized to be distributed. It had not even completed its vetting process within the department. It has been taken off of the intel Web sites and the lexicon that went along with it was similarly withdrawn,” she said.
“Neither were authorized products, and we have now put in place processes. And it turned out there were really no procedures to govern what went out and what didn’t before, and now there are. I do not want to see a replication of that,” Ms. Napolitano said.
The report itself was pretty much useless, but it wasn’t inaccurate – and it certainly wasn’t controversial or contentious until the Religious Right started screaming that it was an attack on Christ once they realized it presented a good fundraising opportunity.
But now the Right and their allies on the Hill have managed to get Napolitano to apologize and retract the report because of their contrived fit of manufactured outrage.
