And Fred Kaplan calls it a big mistake. A bit of background. Senator Clinton wrote to the Pentagon some time ago asking, as many in the Senate have, about progress in Iraq. She received what has been described as a dismissive reply suggesting that she mind her own business.
Kaplan suggests that this might be a mistake for two reasons, and it might serve as a cautionary tale to Democrats who are desperate to impeach the president: nothing rallies a group like an attack on one of their own.
The lower level Pentagon official may have simultaneously rallied (1) women, who may infer sexist condescension in the letter and (2) the Senate who see this as the military rebuffing a legitimate inquiry into how it is conducting an engagement that it sanctioned in law and continues to pay for, both monetarily and with the service of their constituents.
Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, is expected to provide her --and the Senate as a whole--with a more thoughtful reply.
