Ex-UN Spokesman Tries to Blow Up Milbank's Story

In a story about Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) leaving the Senate, WaPo's Dana Milbank manages to draw the ire of Richard Grenell out in LA. Grenell formerly served as American spokesman at the UN. Milbank writes that among Voinovich's fondest memories is announcing his opposition to former UN Ambassador John Bolton (who once threatened to blow up the UN HQ). Grenell accuses Milbank of using "bomb humor" to spice up his story. Milbank tells FishbowlDC: Not so. "I didn't make a bomb joke. Voinovich did. As for Bolton, when he talked about "losing" 10 floors from the U.N. building, do you suppose he was talking about termites?" In an email to Milbank, Grenell writes, "To say that Bolton wanted to blow up the UN is ridiculous. He said, “"The Secretariat Building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost ten stories today, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." It’s a commentary on bureaucracy and efficiency. I”ll put you down for advocating a waste of our tax dollars and using bomb jokes to be funny. You may think it’s just a joke but it’s actually lame and dull writing..." FishbowlDC readers may remember Grenell, who is, ahem, a bit of a flamethrower himself. Back in late September, he accused White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest of giving him the cold shoulder after Grenell offered his opinions to Earnest on President Obama's UN speech. At the time Earnest replied in an e-mail: "Unsubscribe." See more of Grenell's letter to Milbank after the jump.... (Grenell's letter to Milbank continued...) It also furthers a lie that liberal pundits like to spread about Bolton. I could easily argue that Bolton’s work engaging the UN and trying to fix its’ mess means that he cares more about it than Susan Rice does because she just attends parties and doesn’t actually use the UN to further U.S. interests. I ask you, who cares more about something: someone who ignores a problem or someone who tries to fix it?

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Ex-UN Spokesman Tries to Blow Up Milbank's Story

Betsy Rothstein

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Betsy Rothstein