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Corker: WH foreign policy talks 'bizarre'
The Hill ^ | May 23, 2014 | Justin Sink

Posted on 05/23/2014 1:12:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.”

“I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according to Yahoo News. But White House officials said the effort was a bid to address lawmaker concerns over the defense budget, the president’s approach to the civil war in Syria, and when U.S. troops will fully withdraw from Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.

Lawmakers also discussed efforts to find nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls who have been kidnapped by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram.

On Thursday, the House passed a $521.3 billion version of the defense bill, which rejected calls from the president to retire expensive defense programs, reduce troop raises and benefits, and close excess bases, as well as the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The White House has threatened to veto the House bill.

On Wednesday, Obama announced he was dispatching 80 Air Force personnel to Chad to assist in the search for the Nigerian schoolgirls.

According to the wire service, Democratic attendees at the White House meeting included New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Michigan Sen. Carl Levin and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) listed the gathering on his public schedule, and Yahoo reported that his fellow Montanan, Sen. John Walsh was also in attendance. Republicans at the meeting included Corker, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

McDonough has also travelled to Capitol Hill in recent days for meetings with the House Democratic Caucus on Tuesday and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The outreach efforts come ahead of a pair of foreign policy speeches expected next week: the president’s traditional Memorial Day remarks, usually at Arlington National Cemetery, and a graduation speech at West Point on Wednesday.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; US: Arizona; US: Maine; US: Michigan; US: Montana; US: New Jersey; US: Rhode Island; US: Tennessee; US: Vermont; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 201405; 2016election; afghanistan; antiwarcom; antiwardotcom; arizona; arlingtonspeech; benghazi; benrhodes; berniesanders; bizarre; bobcorker; bobmenendez; bokoharam; carllevin; chad; corker; denismcdonough; election2016; findourgirls; foreignpolicy; gitmo; guantanamobay; isolatedincidents; israel; jackreed; jaycarney; jeffflake; johnwalsh; jontester; justinsink; lewrockwell; libya; maine; mcdonough; meeting; menendez; michigan; montana; newjersey; nigeria; nigeriangirls; randsconcerntrolls; rhodeisland; rinos; russia; smartpower; susancollins; susanrice; syria; tennessee; vermont; waronterror; westpoint; westpointspeech
From the AP link in the article above:

"..............Another senator who attended the meeting said Obama's advisers refused to provide lawmakers with answers about whether the president plans to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the war formally concludes later this year or about the Pentagon's efforts to find nearly 300 kidnapped Nigerian school girls.

Unsatisfied, some of the lawmakers started to leave one by one before the meeting had finished. The senator and three congressional aides briefed on the meeting insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The meetings, which have been taking place both at the White House and on Capitol Hill, come as Obama prepares for a speech Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he is expected to try to answer critics who say he has surrendered America's global leadership and faltered on problems in the Middle East, Russia, China and beyond.

[Chief of staff Denis] McDonough and [ national security adviser Susan] Rice met at the White House on Monday night with about a dozen House Democrats. On Tuesday, officials invited 14 senators - three of them were Republicans - to the White House for a discussion on foreign policy over wine, beer and a cheese and cracker platter on the patio outside of McDonough's office..........."

1 posted on 05/23/2014 1:12:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

# Corker sucks....maybe gay.


2 posted on 05/23/2014 1:54:17 AM PDT by wardaddy (we will not take back our way of life through peaceful means.....i have 5 kids....i fear for them)
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To: wardaddy

Thanks for sharing.....

Did you read this? The links?

Please share your wisdom on WH U.S. foreign policy.


3 posted on 05/23/2014 2:08:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The President wants to initiate/redirect/change the direction of foreign policy. It makes all the sense in the world to call in the members of the Foreign Relations committees of the House and Senate -- both majority and minority -- and give them a heads up/seek their opinion.

Do you then leave that briefing to your Chief of Staff and the National Security Advisor?

I wonder where the President was while this was going on. At yet another fundraiser? In the personal quarters? Or shooting hoops with Reggie?

Aside from evidently "bizarre" subject matter, this was not an act of leadership. It was the act of a disengaged and uncaring...authoritarian.

4 posted on 05/23/2014 2:26:18 AM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance on parade.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife; fieldmarshaldj; don-o; Kaslin; Fledermaus; radu; Yudan; Blood of Tyrants

I datest Corker and the Lookout Mountain GOP steering hierarchy that helped get him the primary

All I care about he or Lamar....or Haslam too is getting rid of them

TN is a 65-70% conservative state with 3 moderates in statewide office

Not by coincidence
U
Its the design of state GOP leadership...which is elitist pitiful

Welch in Nashville...just died....might signal changes..most powerful GOP organizer there was

But the Frist family still have huge influence

The Miller family...healthcare....big money too...tend to push red meat conservatives

Andrew Miller sr and Jr...folks I know actually....was invited to their last funder for Scott DeJairles(sic)....imperfect...yes I know

The Tyrells too.....venture cap......tea party types

You have to have the big money to get going here....those are major sources for GOP money

Orrin Ingram......the Turners and Carells.....Nashville

Luptons and Davenports in Chattanooga

Freddie in Memphis

Most give to conventional GOP.....

Its frustrating..past 10-12 years I’ve given away the price of a pick up in donations to conservative candidates who were thwarted by the Lookout MT party bosses in Chattanooga.....its infuriating

So with all due respect...most TN folks here don’t give a rip what Lamar thinks

We just want him retired.


5 posted on 05/23/2014 2:29:51 AM PDT by wardaddy (we will not take back our way of life through peaceful means.....i have 5 kids....i fear for them)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

For whatever reason they let John McCain get involved in Libya, Syria and Ukraine and he’s gone nuts.


6 posted on 05/23/2014 2:31:00 AM PDT by McGruff (What if I told you your leaders were lying to you?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
What do people expect from this bunch?
They are useless with everything.
We are now the laughing stock of the World. . .
7 posted on 05/23/2014 2:51:10 AM PDT by DeaconRed (# GIVE US OUR COUNTRY BACK- NOW! ! ! ! ! ! ! !)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I keep wondering how many times Susan Rice said, "Dang if I know."

Obomba seems determined to use his office to pump up her resume.

When we ever get rid of her, I'd be surprised if she got a job as a pickle plucker at McDonald's.

8 posted on 05/23/2014 4:00:48 AM PDT by Liz
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To: All
We can attribute "SMART POWER"---a post-Bush term coined by Hillary----to Obama's careening and incomprehensible foreign policy (or lack thereof). Obama outed himself as naive, isolated....and outlandishly stupid. Not to forget the abysmally stupid Susan Rice, then-Secy of State Hillary and her All-Girl State Dept, who all had a hand in the "Smart Power" debacle.

==============================================

Democrats' 'Smart Power' Lies in Ruins; Suddenly
Realizing What They Miscalculated About the World:
National Review | Sept 3, 2013 | Jim Geraghty / FR Posted by kristinn

....... Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.

Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.

You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess.

We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, “smart power” (and fronted Time magazine cover).

(These people can’t even label a foreign policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.)

They looked out at the world at the end of the Bush years, and didn’t see tough decisions, unsolvable problems, unstable institutions, restless populations, technology enabling the impulse to destabilize existing institutions, evil men hungry for more power, and difficult trade-offs.

No, our problems and challengers were just a matter of the previous hands running U.S. foreign policy not being smart enough. (Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...

9 posted on 05/23/2014 4:10:33 AM PDT by Liz
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To: okie01
"Do you then leave that briefing to your Chief of Staff and the National Security Advisor"

Before he became Chief of Staff, McDonough was deputy NSA and administrative head of the National Security Council. Plus, the NeoCon Republicans think highly of McDonough.

I would say that the problem is conflicts within Congress. Congress is very unified on the NSA eavesdropping, but on the other issues such as the Iranian sanctions, bombing Syria, and arming the Syrian rebels there are serious conflicts

I would also say that are conflicts between AIPAC and J Street

10 posted on 05/23/2014 5:47:38 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Liz
You sound like a NeoCon.

Do you know what Smart Power is? That's what you have to fall back on when you don't have enough money to implement foreign policy by military intervention.

11 posted on 05/23/2014 5:50:50 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks Cincinatus' Wife.
On Thursday, the House passed a $521.3 billion version of the defense bill, which rejected calls from the president to retire expensive defense programs, reduce troop raises and benefits, and close excess bases, as well as the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The White House has threatened to veto the House bill. On Wednesday, Obama announced he was dispatching 80 Air Force personnel to Chad to assist in the search for the Nigerian schoolgirls.

12 posted on 05/24/2014 6:08:47 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I can hardly wait until 2016 to vote this RINO OUT.

This year we get a chance to vote the OTHER TN RINO lamar alexander out. State Rep Joe Carr is much more conservative, his state voting record proves it.

While lamar voted us deeper in debt and shafted the Military just this year.


13 posted on 05/24/2014 6:58:38 AM PDT by GailA (IF you fail to keep your promises to the Military, you won't keep them to Citizens!)
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To: wardaddy

I’m with you Wardaddy.

Would like to see cohen of memphis 9th get beat by Charlotte Bergmann, she doesn’t quit, this is her third go to unseat him. A conservative, Tea Party black business owner.


14 posted on 05/24/2014 7:01:18 AM PDT by GailA (IF you fail to keep your promises to the Military, you won't keep them to Citizens!)
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To: wardaddy

Amen. We only moved to TN in 1990 and so far still can’t figure out the obession with moderate RINO’s in this state. Even Fred Thompson turned into a spineless tool.


15 posted on 05/24/2014 10:37:10 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Conservatives are all that's left to defend the Constitution. Dems hate it, and Repubs don't care.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

If Obama can’t even show up to the meeting, he isn’t serious.


16 posted on 05/25/2014 9:35:05 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

I could have told him that years ago.

Personally, when there's a Constitutional procedure to pass legislation with 50% of both houses, or to ratify a treaty with 2/3, I find the Corker bill setting these procedures bizarre.

17 posted on 09/20/2015 12:12:12 PM PDT by SJackson (Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Mike Tyson)
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