Memo to Hillary: There is a Chain-of-Command

As usual Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D - New York) and her left wing backers have things backward.

The Junior Senator from New York is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Apparently, in May she requested breifings on Pentagon plans to withdraw from Iraq. Of course, such a plan presupposes that such plans exist. The Senator's request went forward despite testimony before her committee by the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace, that no order to develop such plans had been issued.

So we see the following responses from
DailyKos

Clinton's question was more than appropriate.

and TalkLeft

Edelman seems not to know that the Pentagon is not the commanding officer of the Senate. His response is disrespectful, outrageous and he should be immediately fired for his unacceptable behavior.

and the Senator Herself:

Clinton responded Friday in a letter to Edelman's boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking if he agreed with Edelman's charge. She said Edelman had ducked her questions and "instead made spurious arguments to avoid addressing contingency planning." "Undersecretary Edelman has his priorities backward," Clinton wrote, calling his claim "outrageous and dangerous." She repeated her request for a briefing - classified if necessary - on the issue of end-of-war planning. The senator's spokesman Philippe Reines said: "We sent a serious letter to the Secretary of Defense, and unacceptably got a political response back."

Predictable, but also dead wrong. This is political grandstanding at worst. TalkLeft has it precisely backward. The Undersecretary of Defense does not take orders from the Senate, let alone a Junior Senator on the Armed Services Committee. The Constitutional Role of the Senate is OVERSIGHT. That doesn't mean issuing orders or demanding reports that, in testimony before Congress, do not exist. If the Senator wants to criticize the President for his planning or lack thereof, that is fair game... POTUS is where the buck stops. But the Undersecretary takes orders from SECDEF and POTUS.

As an aspiring candidate for the Presidency, you'd think Mrs. Clinton would have more respect for the Chain-of-Command than this.