Inappropriate behavior

The Undersecretary of Defense has all but accused Hillary Clinton of treason:

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.

In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Now, frankly, it's totally inappropriate for an unelected Defense Dept. employee to criticize an elected Senator for commenting on national policy. But, I'm beginning to fear that these guys are preparing the road for a coup d'état. They are beginning to realize that if there is another election in 2008, the Thuglicans are going down to ignominious defeat, and they can't let that happen. One way to avoid it is to simply grab the power and hold it by throwing the opposition into jail.