Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday questioned why Pakistani officials have not been able to capture or kill members of al Qaeda taking refuge in the country.

“Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she told a group of Pakistani journalists during her trip to the country.

“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to … Maybe that’s the case,” she added. “Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”

Al Qaeda, she said, has launched attacks on Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries, “so the world has an interest in seeing the capture and killing of the people who are the masterminds of this terrorist syndicate.”

“As far as we know, they are in Pakistan.”

Sounds like George Stephanopoulos playing fantasy football.

NY Times: Hillary Clinton Enlists Blumenthal for State Dept. Post

Flashback: Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama

Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama’s character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren’t being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers — including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers — in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists. One of the recipients of the Blumenthal email blast, himself a Clinton supporter, forwards the material to me and perhaps to others.

Not exactly the sort of light touch one often associates with the state department.

The U.S. State Department contacted the social networking service Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

“Are you in favor of releasing the documents that Dick Cheney has been requesting be released?,” asked Rep. Rohrbacher.

“Well, it won’t surprise you, I don’t consider him a particularly reliable source of information,” responded Secretary Clinton to a smattering of laughter in the hearing room.

Congressman Rohrbacher appeared none too pleased and went at it again. “Madam Secretary, I asked you a specific question,” he said sternly.

“Congressman, I believe we ought to get to the bottom of this entire matter. I think it is in the best interest of our country and that is what the president believes and that is why he has taken the actions he did,” said Clinton.

Clinton aide Mary Ellen Glenn emails that the Secretary of State’s question about a relic in a Mexican church — portrayed in the Mexican press and here as a gaffe — was actually a misunderstanding.

Clinton asked, the monsignor showing her around later reportedly told the Mexican press, who had painted the Virgin of Guadalupe on a famous cloak. “God,” the priest replied.

But Glynn points out that Clinton and the priest were looking at a replica of the cloak on the first floor of the Basilica, not at the

“Secretary Clinton remarked on a replica of the Guadalupe image, not the actual image,” she emailed.

The United States on Wednesday scolded China for a litany of human-rights abuses last year even though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested during her recent Beijing visit that the issue would take a back seat to broader concerns like the global financial crisis.

In a report on the state of human rights around the world, the State Department singled out China for numerous violations while noting a general deterioration in conditions in other countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and eastern Europe.

China’s an important trading partner and they are helping to hold up our economy (and theirs) but that doesn’t mean we should keep giving them a total pass on these rights violations. When the Secretary Of State and especially the President have interactions with senior Chinese officials, they have to be subject to diplomatic pressure.

The Senate has confirmed Hillary Rodham Clinton to become secretary of state.

The Senate vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the former first lady despite lingering concerns by some Republicans that her husband’s charitable fundraising overseas could pose a conflict of interest.

Republicans and Democrat alike say her swift confirmation was necessary so that President Barack Obama could begin tackling the major foreign policy issues at hand, including two wars, increased violence in the Middle East and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

That’s far more pressing than the latest “Ooooooooo drama!” story.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But don’t tell that to the media and the pundit class who is now trying to figure out just what message President-Elect Obama is sending with his cabinet choices so far. Some would say that this is just a way to fill up air time between now and Christmas and then between Christmas and the inauguration but I’m not that cynical.

At various intervals the choice is supposed to be a rebuke to his left flank, a concession to the right, or a middling sort of centrism. He’s got too many Clinton appointments! Too many conservative leaning folks! Not enough lefties! Etc.

It is quite possible that Barack Obama is picking the people he thinks are best prepared to do the job he tasks them with. Perhaps choosing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is not a Machiavellian plot to neuter a rival but instead he’s choosing one of the most well known and respected pols in the world to execute his vision of America’s role in the world.

No, too crazy.

UPDATE: Obama’s picking them for their mad hoop skills. Can HRC handle the rock?

BY THE WAY: If this stuff is such a roadblock to Secretary of State, how the hell were they planning on being the presidential candidate?

UPDATE: Also, in the coverage of this it has become accepted that Sen. Clinton campaigned hard for Sen. Obama. My gut feeling is that this isn’t true. Oh, she campaigned, and it was more than the perfunctory stuff she did for Kerry, but… I dunno.

(via)

Moving on…

The real question is if George W. Bush will be speaking at the Republican convention. Because, you see, unlike President Clinton, President Bush is a disastrously unpopular leader who the nominee is making an almost unprecedented effort to disassociate himself from.

Perhaps the MSM could throw out their woefully outdated “Democratic Disarray” script and do some work for a change.

I mean, if the real Mark Penn really wrote something like that it would clearly be the work product of a highly delusional and deranged mind. It must be satire, because not even a 47th level nimrod like Penn would write something that bizarre.

Right?