Crowley Out Over Manning Outburst

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley has been erratic for a while, but he went too far when, at M.I.T. on Thursday, he called the Defense Department’s handling of Private Bradley Manning “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Today Crowley resigned from his State Department position.
Reflexive leftism is pretty common at State, and I suppose this was a classic gaffe, i.e., Crowley said what he actually believed. Still, it is hard to understand how Crowley could have thought it would be OK to slam the Defense Department. Isn’t the State Department supposed to be all about diplomacy? Isn’t it a bit weird that they can’t come up with a spokesman who is diplomatic enough not to insult the guys on his own side?

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