September 16, 2009 10:01 PM UTC

Bennet's Office Bungles Terrorism Alert Report

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• by: Colorado Pols

Not good news for team Michael Bennet, as the Denver Post reports:

As news broke of a possible terrorist cell in Denver, Colorado’s lawmakers worked furiously to reassure the public that they knew what was going on and that the situation was under control.

But Sen. Michael Bennet’s office appeared to be largely in the dark.

That’s according to a confidential string of e-mails inadvertently sent to the media that show Bennet’s staff desperately trying to find out information from law enforcement officials while openly worrying how the media might play the fact that he was out of the loop.

An e-mail chain accidently attached to a two-paragraph news release offered a glimpse of the upheaval that breaking news can create in official corridors…

We received this press release yesterday evening. Our first thought was, “why is it so long?” Then we scrolled down, and read this back-and-forth between Sen. Michael Bennet’s staff as our eyes slowly widened. We didn’t anything last night because, frankly, we weren’t sure if this inadvertent leak contained classified or otherwise privileged information. But with or without that added complication, the narration of Bennet’s staff’s singleminded focus on favorable press coverage during a major terrorist investigation — and discussions as though it were just a “missed opportunity” — is really, really bad.

As the thinking of his staff unwinds in e-mails and proposed talking points, much of their conversation focuses on whether the lawmaker will appear uninformed compared with colleagues.

Bennet’s staff suggested that he tell reporters he had been “in close contact” with the FBI since that morning, when he was apparently still waiting for an FBI briefing late in the afternoon.

Bennet’s staff also openly fretted that he would be upstaged by his Democratic colleague, Sen. Mark Udall, who had been briefed by the FBI and had spoken to reporters.

“Bummed we missed this – I was under the impression we were being asked not to talk – looks like everyone else did and will lieky (sic) get the press. Lesson learned for next time,” Sarah Hughes, Bennet’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in one missive.

Two things to keep in mind: first, earned media is the primary concern of every Senator’s communications staff. It’s not like Bennet (or any other politician, for that matter) is really involved with a freshly-breaking terrorism investigation, their job is mostly to keep out of the way and to reassure the public. Second, some of the frustration expressed by Bennet’s staff is understandable–as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, it sounds like the FBI could have done a better job keeping him in the loop.

Even so, we doubt anyone really wondered about what Bennet’s response was yesterday. It’s not like anyone, us included, was thinking, “Hey, what does Michael Bennet think about all this?” When Sen. Mark Udall eventually issued a statement, we just assumed he was the person being briefed initially because he is Colorado’s Senior Senator. Bennet’s staff didn’t need to pretend that he was being consulted about this, because nobody was asking. And NOBODY would have known that Bennet wasn’t informed unless his staff told them.

But the larger point is that we should not even be having this conversation at all. Inadvertently copying the whole staff email reply chain about this kind of event into a press release is totally inexcusable. In fact, thank goodness the FBI was too busy to brief them, or the disclosure might have been much worse. There are things you can screw up this badly and draw a gaffe pass, national security is not one of them.