The right’s latest dirty Bergdahl trick: Pitting Clinton against Obama - By Joan Walsh

Reports that Hillary Clinton favored a tougher deal in 2012 tell us nothing about what she'd have done in 2014

JOAN WALSH

I wrote yesterday about why the GOP’s Benghazi fever so easily developed into Bergdahl-zi fever. Both started with B, both led to calls for investigation (and, better yet, impeachment); both let the right play on the scurrilous anti-American, Muslim-sympathizing caricature they’ve created of President Obama. But I did leave out one thing: Both offer an opportunity to either smear likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, by associating her with a risky Obama decision, or to separate her from Obama and split the Democratic party.

Today that last seductive feature of the Bergdahl story is becoming obvious, largely due to a story by the Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin that proclaims: “Hillary Was Skeptical Of Taliban Swap.” Notably, the article features great reporting on Clinton’s concerns about the deal to exchange Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners.

Great reporting on the deal that was under consideration two years ago, that is.

Clinton “had severe reservations about the potential deal, and demanded stricter conditions for the release of the prisoners than what President Obama settled for last week,” Rogin reports. And while she “had a framework deal drawn up that was much tougher on the Taliban than what ultimately got done two years later… she may not have even signed off had negotiations succeeded.” But they didn’t; the Taliban backed away.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/04/the_right%E2%80%99s_latest_dirty_bergdahl_trick_pitting_clinton_against_obama/