White House: Netanyahu Visit a ‘Departure from Protocol’ (well done, Mr. Speaker!!)

breitbart.com ^ | 1/21/15 | Charlie Spiering

[cotton1706]

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reacted to the news that House Speaker John Boehner had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress, calling it a “departure from protocol.”

“The typical protocol would suggest that the leader of a country would contact the leader of another country when he is traveling there and that’s certainly is how President Obama’s trips are planned when we travel overseas,” he said. “This particular event seems to be a departure from that protocol.”

Netanyahu’s visit was announced earlier this morning after Obama’s State of the Union address. Earnest said that the White House found out about the trip shortly before Boehner’s announcement.

Earnest said that the White House “hadn’t heard directly from the Israelis at all” and didn’t know if the Prime Minster would be visiting the White House during his trip.

“We’ll need to hear from them about what their plans are and what he plans to say in his remarks to Congress before we have a decision to make about any meeting,” Earnest explained, pointing out that the White House would “reserve judgement” about the trip until they had conversations with Israeli officials.

[Ready4Freddy]

I would suggest that you do that, CodeToad.

The Head of Government is typically the ‘leader’ of a country (I’m loath to say ‘always’, but any exceptions would be few and far between).

The Head of Government makes Federal (or ‘national’, if you will) government appointments, and wields all or essentially all Executive authority.

One sees this in most if not all Parliamentary systems - The PM is Head of Government is considered the ‘leader’ of the country, and the President, usually chosen from within the majority party, is a mostly ceremonial office. One hears very little from the President, and I’d venture to guess that few outside the country even know or care what the President’s name is - think France, Germany, or even Israel. In the European monarchies, no one would say that the monarch, as Head of State only, is the ‘leader’ of the country.

The US is one of the few large countries that combine the positions of Head of State with Head of Government (only Brasil comes to mind). I’ll surmise that that is the main source of your confusion, and that you know how rare combining the positions is. I’ve never seen anyone claim that the highest-ranking member of a legislative body is the leader of a country.

I find B Hussein’s being called our ‘leader’ as distasteful as you probably do, but there’s no need to make shiite up about the Speaker position to show your distaste.

[CodeToad]

“Head of Government”

The US is a unique country in that we have equal branches of government, not a single leading entity as you think there is. We have no “Head of Government” as you claim.

The President is the head of the Executive branch, not of “The government”, as you claim.

The Congress is the Legislative branch, with equal standing as the Executive branch.

The Judicial branch is another equal branch, not overshadowed by the President or Congress.

The Congress has the right to call/invite whomever they want without the President saying squat about it. They have equal standing and the President is not their leader.

Your civics knowledge is typical distorted public school education. They haven’t taught proper civics in decades.

[Ready4Freddy]

"The US is a unique country in that we have equal branches of government, not a single leading entity as you think there is."

Hardly unique, Toad. Three separate and equal (at least on paper) branches has been pretty much the standard for several centuries. We did not invent that.

"The President is the head of the Executive branch..."

Correct, and that position is considered the Head of Government in dealing with matters of foreign policy, as in the situation extant. Gotta have someone's name and PO Box on the mailing list, if only to know where to send declarations of war. And invites to summits, of course, since Heads of Governments tend to attend those.

"The Congress has the right to call/invite whomever they want..."

Of course.

"...without the President saying squat about it."

Arguable. Someone else is in charge of visas, tho one would hope that even B Hussein isn't petty enough to interfere there.

"Your civics knowledge is typical distorted public school education. They haven’t taught proper civics in decades."

I always get a kick out of seeing folks post this. There should be a Law, a cognate of Godwin's Law, for such occasions.

There's not a minute of public school education in my CV, having attended several DoD, Anglican, and Jesuit schools in multiple countries as a US Naval officer's dependent.