I think the general reaction to today’s Richard Clarke testimony can be summed up as something of a redux of the David Kay testimony a few months back: everyone was able to take away something to reinforce their preexisting views,…
Clarke’s mea culpa today was sickening. If he truly felt that he personally failed the families of 9/11 victims and truly asked for their forgiveness, he would donate every penny he makes on the book to a 9/11 fund of some sort. His apology — like most other aspects of his testimony — ring hollow.
And there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, moons leaving their orbits, Hubbles falling into NMD black budget holes, National Security Advisers spinning like Tasmanian Devils, but not, no never under oath and out of the public eye and much crying over spilt milk to no avail for the mighty Casey has struck out.
GDubya’s caulliflower ear was clipped big time and he’s on his knees. His managers are runninng around screaming about low blows from a former, stress that, member of his loyal cadre.
The towel has not flown yet, nor is it imminent, at least not as the threat from Saddam which no, no they never said, but it is coming dear friends and Rasmussen is the messenger.
Clarke has gone from whistleblowing media darling, to war-profiteering incompetent scumbag in record time. Tough to get those worms back in the can, isn’t it Richard?
This is an indictment of the Washington bureaucracy if nothing else. I think Bush did a good job pre and post 9/11. Clinton could have done more, but in all honesty we didn’t have the causus belli to go around invading countries (which we needed to do to really solve the problem) in the 1990′s.
The real blame belongs at the feet of the bureaucrats who are more interested in CYA and finger pointing than solutions. Bush was right to get rid of Clarke, and he should have done away with Tenet and several others to at least send the message thet we’re all on the same side and won’t tolerate highschool level political wrangling at the highest levels of our government.
I wish Clarke all the success of Jayson Blair’s NY Times expose: about 1500 copies sold out of a production run of 250,000. Clarke’s career is over and he’s been exposed as a fraud, let’s not let him collect any more 9/11 blood money from book sales.
You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right Round round round You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right round round round…
We can use adaplant’s statement in a “this is your brain on drugs” campaign.:) IMHO, Clarke’s testimony before the 9-11 commission has “self-serving” written all over it.
As soon as I heard his “tearful” apology to the Sept. 11 folks, CYA sprang to mind. Check that, as soon as I read about his “hundreds dead” memo, CYA sprang to mind. If it was all so damned important to get the terrorists, then what was he doing during the preceeding 8 years? The US was attacked again and again (WTC in 93, Khobar towers, Kenya/Tanzania, USS Cole) and the best response was a few cruise missiles?
I am piling onto our Site Admin’s post below, but Mike at Cold Fury hits it out of the ballpark again with his riff on the Clarke testimony. He is building on letter from Christopher Shays originally linked by VodkaPundit…
From Vodkapundit: A letter from Senator Christopher Shays (letterhead clipped when I squared the text up) 0 in 2000, criticizing Clarke for presenting as an antiterror strategy a ‘Most Wanted’ list….
Good stuff. Are Shays’ remarks and these letters getting much attention from the Big Networks and the Eastern Establishment press? I doubt it. Gets in the way of their plan, which is to toe the DNC party line at every turn, putting GWB on the defensive and giving Kerry a free pass. The whole thing is pissing me off. Secretary Lehman gave Clarke a good going over, though, but who’s going to care? Viacom’s harem’s got books and programs to sell!
The Clinton admin did nothing because they were usurping credit for the Reagan-Bush 1 years, which meant that, much like any good mirror, espec for narcissist Bill, the world had to be nothing more than generally, if not perfect, peace-and-quiet, in order for Failed Leftism-Socialism to aesthetically “appear” or “seem” superior to the Reagn-BUsh 1 years! despite the DemoLibs and Leftmedias giving him credit for the 1990′s prosperity, Bill himself post-Florida2000 now admits the economy was already expanding well-before he took office
-with the economy on its own, all he really needed to do was ensure that few if any American or other PC-incorect civilian lives were lost in ANY international endeavors. which explains his admins’s overreliance on ineffective airpower and dubious UN inpections – if true as alleged that elements within his admin gave advance warning on the Sudan strikes, whose to say that any USN carrier-based airstrikes against NORTH KOREA whould have been similarly [in]effective – NO COSTS AND NO RISKS, BESIDES FREE LEFTMEDIA CREDIT!? Of course Bill wore dark sunglasses like Bruce Willis and played the sax – he had nothing else to do, besides MONICA etal.and what ever else seriously or severely was needed or required by America to be done in the world, HE WASN’T GOING TO DO IT IF IT MEANT JEOPARDIZING THE IMAGE OF SAFE AND PROSPEROUS, AND THUS VOTER-VALID AND RELEVANT, LEFTISM-SOCIALISM, WHICH IN HIS AND HILLARY’S CASE IS COMMUNISM, AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY! Like NERO and ROME, Billary played the Sax and the Blues while America, Israel, and the whole of the Western, Free World got TRASHED, DUMMED DOWN, and MILITARILY-GEOPOL WEAKENED!?
Dan Drezner pretty much hits the nail on the head. Remember the common line that every Washington memoir can be subtitled If Only They Had Listened To Me, and you will go a long way towards understanding the basis and…
As with many issues debated in the blogosphere, the Richard Clarke CYA fiasco takes many tortuous turns. What I think is the final post on the topic was cited by Donald Sensing as he links to Armed Liberal who, in…
Hi Joe, I see you are still smiting them hip and thigh! Meanwhile when is Clinton going to appear before the committee? That will determine where the biggest part of the blame lies. And this exercise will not acomplish anything else, if it even acomplishes that. The ‘leaked’ Democratic memo from last December explains why the demonrats are doing this and the Bushies have a good plan to make it backfire on them. Plus it is lousy timing. I think the 1 ponit per week slide in the polls by kerry is starting a panic at DNC headquarters. Hillery loves it, of course. She is Bush’s secret weapon. Anyone that thinks hill-babe will let kerry come between her and the white house is smoking crack.
Actually Clinton could have invaded Iraq whenever he wanted to. A TRUCE is not a Peace Treaty. Two different things. A Truce does not automaticly become a peace treaty. Technically, the USA has been at war with N. Korea since 1951. I’m not sure if a Truce lasting 50 years is a record or not. And we were at war with Iraq all during Clinton’s administration. I think that the standard notice of intent to restart hostilites wasn’t even required because Saddam voilated the terms of the truce. No, Clinton had all the reason anyone could want, much more then he had for Kosovo. Kosovo was pure naked power. It was Clinton’s America telling the world,”We are the biggest kid on the playground, we will do what we want. If you don’t like it fook you”. Clinton just didn’t have the balls to commit ground troops. Plain and simple.
Dick Clarke’s Rockin’ March 24th
I think the general reaction to today’s Richard Clarke testimony can be summed up as something of a redux of the David Kay testimony a few months back: everyone was able to take away something to reinforce their preexisting views,…
Clarke’s mea culpa today was sickening. If he truly felt that he personally failed the families of 9/11 victims and truly asked for their forgiveness, he would donate every penny he makes on the book to a 9/11 fund of some sort. His apology — like most other aspects of his testimony — ring hollow.
And there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, moons leaving their orbits, Hubbles falling into NMD black budget holes, National Security Advisers spinning like Tasmanian Devils, but not, no never under oath and out of the public eye and much crying over spilt milk to no avail for the mighty Casey has struck out.
GDubya’s caulliflower ear was clipped big time and he’s on his knees. His managers are runninng around screaming about low blows from a former, stress that, member of his loyal cadre.
The towel has not flown yet, nor is it imminent, at least not as the threat from Saddam which no, no they never said, but it is coming dear friends and Rasmussen is the messenger.
Part of the problem
A particularly nice catch by Stephen: a letter to the 9/11 commission from Christopher Shays, chairman of the House Government…
adaplant
taking crack in the middle of the night is always a bad move.
Clarke has gone from whistleblowing media darling, to war-profiteering incompetent scumbag in record time. Tough to get those worms back in the can, isn’t it Richard?
This is an indictment of the Washington bureaucracy if nothing else. I think Bush did a good job pre and post 9/11. Clinton could have done more, but in all honesty we didn’t have the causus belli to go around invading countries (which we needed to do to really solve the problem) in the 1990′s.
The real blame belongs at the feet of the bureaucrats who are more interested in CYA and finger pointing than solutions. Bush was right to get rid of Clarke, and he should have done away with Tenet and several others to at least send the message thet we’re all on the same side and won’t tolerate highschool level political wrangling at the highest levels of our government.
I wish Clarke all the success of Jayson Blair’s NY Times expose: about 1500 copies sold out of a production run of 250,000. Clarke’s career is over and he’s been exposed as a fraud, let’s not let him collect any more 9/11 blood money from book sales.
An Ode to Richard Clarke by way of Dead or Alive
You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right Round round round You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right round round round…
We can use adaplant’s statement in a “this is your brain on drugs” campaign.:) IMHO, Clarke’s testimony before the 9-11 commission has “self-serving” written all over it.
As soon as I heard his “tearful” apology to the Sept. 11 folks, CYA sprang to mind. Check that, as soon as I read about his “hundreds dead” memo, CYA sprang to mind. If it was all so damned important to get the terrorists, then what was he doing during the preceeding 8 years? The US was attacked again and again (WTC in 93, Khobar towers, Kenya/Tanzania, USS Cole) and the best response was a few cruise missiles?
http://WWW.JESSICASWELL.COM/MT/archives/001327.html
I am piling onto our Site Admin’s post below, but Mike at Cold Fury hits it out of the ballpark again with his riff on the Clarke testimony. He is building on letter from Christopher Shays originally linked by VodkaPundit…
Shays on Clarke
From Vodkapundit: A letter from Senator Christopher Shays (letterhead clipped when I squared the text up) 0 in 2000, criticizing Clarke for presenting as an antiterror strategy a ‘Most Wanted’ list….
Good stuff. Are Shays’ remarks and these letters getting much attention from the Big Networks and the Eastern Establishment press? I doubt it. Gets in the way of their plan, which is to toe the DNC party line at every turn, putting GWB on the defensive and giving Kerry a free pass. The whole thing is pissing me off. Secretary Lehman gave Clarke a good going over, though, but who’s going to care? Viacom’s harem’s got books and programs to sell!
DOWN WITH THE FASCIST LEFT!
The Clinton admin did nothing because they were usurping credit for the Reagan-Bush 1 years, which meant that, much like any good mirror, espec for narcissist Bill, the world had to be nothing more than generally, if not perfect, peace-and-quiet, in order for Failed Leftism-Socialism to aesthetically “appear” or “seem” superior to the Reagn-BUsh 1 years! despite the DemoLibs and Leftmedias giving him credit for the 1990′s prosperity, Bill himself post-Florida2000 now admits the economy was already expanding well-before he took office
-with the economy on its own, all he really needed to do was ensure that few if any American or other PC-incorect civilian lives were lost in ANY international endeavors. which explains his admins’s overreliance on ineffective airpower and dubious UN inpections – if true as alleged that elements within his admin gave advance warning on the Sudan strikes, whose to say that any USN carrier-based airstrikes against NORTH KOREA whould have been similarly [in]effective – NO COSTS AND NO RISKS, BESIDES FREE LEFTMEDIA CREDIT!? Of course Bill wore dark sunglasses like Bruce Willis and played the sax – he had nothing else to do, besides MONICA etal.and what ever else seriously or severely was needed or required by America to be done in the world, HE WASN’T GOING TO DO IT IF IT MEANT JEOPARDIZING THE IMAGE OF SAFE AND PROSPEROUS, AND THUS VOTER-VALID AND RELEVANT, LEFTISM-SOCIALISM, WHICH IN HIS AND HILLARY’S CASE IS COMMUNISM, AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY! Like NERO and ROME, Billary played the Sax and the Blues while America, Israel, and the whole of the Western, Free World got TRASHED, DUMMED DOWN, and MILITARILY-GEOPOL WEAKENED!?
SUMMMING UP RICHARD CLARKE
Dan Drezner pretty much hits the nail on the head. Remember the common line that every Washington memoir can be subtitled If Only They Had Listened To Me, and you will go a long way towards understanding the basis and…
Final
As with many issues debated in the blogosphere, the Richard Clarke CYA fiasco takes many tortuous turns. What I think is the final post on the topic was cited by Donald Sensing as he links to Armed Liberal who, in…
Hi Joe, I see you are still smiting them hip and thigh! Meanwhile when is Clinton going to appear before the committee? That will determine where the biggest part of the blame lies. And this exercise will not acomplish anything else, if it even acomplishes that. The ‘leaked’ Democratic memo from last December explains why the demonrats are doing this and the Bushies have a good plan to make it backfire on them. Plus it is lousy timing. I think the 1 ponit per week slide in the polls by kerry is starting a panic at DNC headquarters. Hillery loves it, of course. She is Bush’s secret weapon. Anyone that thinks hill-babe will let kerry come between her and the white house is smoking crack.
Actually Clinton could have invaded Iraq whenever he wanted to. A TRUCE is not a Peace Treaty. Two different things. A Truce does not automaticly become a peace treaty. Technically, the USA has been at war with N. Korea since 1951. I’m not sure if a Truce lasting 50 years is a record or not. And we were at war with Iraq all during Clinton’s administration. I think that the standard notice of intent to restart hostilites wasn’t even required because Saddam voilated the terms of the truce. No, Clinton had all the reason anyone could want, much more then he had for Kosovo. Kosovo was pure naked power. It was Clinton’s America telling the world,”We are the biggest kid on the playground, we will do what we want. If you don’t like it fook you”. Clinton just didn’t have the balls to commit ground troops. Plain and simple.
Obviousl Clarke needed to apologize for his many failures, but he had no right to apologize for the US Governement.