Who's your Daddy, McChrystal???


The new Rolling Stone article about Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the screaming must-read of the morning and it has Obama administration officials stunned. (The issue hits newsstands later this week, but you can read excerpts HERE.)

• In the story, one top McChrystal adviser refers to Vice President Biden as “Bite Me.”

• A McChrystal adviser says that in his first meeting with the general, President Obama “clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his f---ing war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed.”

• Another aide calls National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones (ret.) a “clown … stuck in 1985.”

• McChrystal says he felt “betrayed” by the leak of a cable from US Ambassador to Afghanistan Gen. Karl Eikenberry (ret.) describing Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “not an adequate strategic partner.” Says McChrystal: “I like Karl, I’ve known him for years, but they’d never said anything like that to us before. Here’s one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’”

Working the phones early this am, I found administration officials bothered and bewildered by the article. How could McChrystal do this? Why would he do it?

No one yet was ready to say President Obama would fire McChrystal – it’s probably not the right time for that – but they didn’t hide their anger, making it clear that McChrystal is being ordered back to Washington to hear it from Obama himself.

A tough meeting is likely, reminiscent of the first time Obama ordered McChrystal to the woodshed – last October after the General appeared to diss Vice President Biden and limit the President’s ability to make a decision in a London speech.

Expect a full grovel from McChrystal – he’s already working the phones – once he gets to the White House.

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