Fall Guy

There's some amazing quotes from Rep. Jim Moran (obtained by Josh Rogin) right here on the, basically, dismissal of Greg Craig (White House counsel) from the Obama administration, via The Washington Post. Jim Moran is a northern Virginia congressman who was trying to ease the Guantanamo transfer of prisoners, some possibly coming to northern Virginia. (Might be useful to read the WaPo article first.)

Now the administration is trying to press the reset button on Guantánamo, but Moran argued the damage is done and it is now nearly impossible to sell the idea of moving the prisoners to U.S. soil.

"This is their first major fuck up, and it's an enormous fuckup, because now that you've lost ground you're not going to be able to recover it," said Moran.

Anyway, this, I think, is the first sacrificial lamb of the Obama administration (Well, maybe Van Jones was.). Anyway, Greg Craig was supposed to be a major progressive voice in the administration. Maybe I'm wrong. I do know that he was one of the first big name Obama supporters. His Wikipedia entry says it all: "Because of his close ties to the Clintons, when Craig declared his support of Senator Barack Obama's presidential ambitions in March 2007, it attracted widespread attention."

March 2007. Obama declared in early February '07, I think. Maybe late January. Regardless, Craig was early. Now he's meat.