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Helen Thomas: Terror Fears Only Card Bush Has To Play
The Boston Channel ^ | October 6, 2004 | Hearst Magaine's Lovable, One & Only, Helen Thomas

Posted on 10/08/2004 11:26:53 AM PDT by Area Freeper

Someday, President George W. Bush may have to explain why he really went to war against Iraq.

But you won't hear it with his re-election at stake and his credibility on the line.

Public opinion polls continue to show a tight presidential race, which suggests to me that voters have devalued the importance of credibility in top government officials.

How else can one make sense of the fact that the president continues to do well in the polls despite the total collapse of his credibility about the reasons for invading Iraq?

This credibility problem was on full display Tuesday night during the spirited debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, his Democratic rival.

During the 90-minute encounter, Cheney made it eminently clear that the administration has only one card to play in this campaign -- terrorism. By keeping the country scared, the administration hopes to be safely ensconced for another four years.

To his credit, Edwards quickly zeroed in on the administration's dishonest propaganda line that we invaded Iraq because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

These words that Edwards directed at Cheney should be emblazoned on every wall:

"Mr. Vice President, there is no connection between the attacks of Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein. The 9/11 commission has said it. Your secretary of state has said it. And you've gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There is not."

Amen.

Administration spinners, from Bush on down, have cleverly tried to make that convergence, ever more desperately as the original rationale of Saddam's mythical weapons of mass destruction has gradually disappeared over the horizon.

The final nail in the WMD coffin came Wednesday when yet another White House-ordered weapons search came up empty.

Charles A. Duelfer, appointed in January after David A. Kay found no WMD in Iraq, is the latest weapons hunter to come home skunked. I wonder if Bush will send yet another searcher in hopes of satisfying this administration obsession.

No WMD and no links between Saddam and 9/11 leave Bush and Cheney adrift on an ocean of spin and stubborn insistence that, well, the world is better off with Saddam in jail. It would be funny if it were not so tragic.

Cheney, a hawk nesting nicely in a well-feathered administration, can't let go of his Saddam-9/11 rant even though Bush himself has said there were no links.

To those of us who have watched the Bush administration mush these two themes together, it was refreshing to hear Edwards tell Cheney Tuesday night that he was "not being straight with the American people."

Meantime, two administration leading lights have thrown the White House in a tizzy with their recent statements about the war and Saddam.

L. Paul Bremer, former U.S. administrator in Iraq, told an audience in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., on Monday that the Bush administration had failed to provide enough occupation troops in Iraq.

Asked about Bremer's statement, White House spokesman Scott McClellan simply reiterated that the president took his advice on the troop situation from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the military commanders in the field.

Rumsfeld was in more hot water -- as if he needed any more trouble -- for telling the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that he had "not seen any strong, hard evidence" of links between Saddam and the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11. (Dick Cheney, please note.)

But big men can recant, especially when the White House apparently phones to rebuke them.

Bremer later backtracked and said there are now sufficient troop levels in Iraq. And the Pentagon said Rumsfeld was misunderstood. Too bad these men cannot speak English.

The White House was so rattled by this bam-bam that it issued a statement several hours before the vice presidential debate proclaiming that "there were disturbing similarities" between Saddam and the al Qaida before the war.

It's no wonder the administration is trying to hold the line on the fleeting reasons for going to war with so much at stake. After all, the voters could decide they were misled.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: nofoollikeanoldfool
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1 posted on 10/08/2004 11:26:53 AM PDT by Area Freeper
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To: Area Freeper

This post is missing the requisite "BARF!" alert.


2 posted on 10/08/2004 11:27:41 AM PDT by IGOTMINE
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To: Area Freeper

Note to Helen: Hahahahahahahahahahaha


3 posted on 10/08/2004 11:28:46 AM PDT by sarasota
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To: IGOTMINE

"This post is missing the requisite "BARF!" alert."


Hey, it could've been worse - someone could've posted a picture of the old battle axe.


4 posted on 10/08/2004 11:29:24 AM PDT by Blzbba (John F'in Kerry - Master Debater?)
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To: IGOTMINE

The name of the author is an implied "Barf Alert"


5 posted on 10/08/2004 11:29:29 AM PDT by Area Freeper (From John Kerry, they get a "yes/no/maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies)
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To: Area Freeper
Helen Thomas: Terror Fears Only Card Bush Has To Play

Well, Helen - we could all play up on another fear - If JOhn Kerry is elected, every american will be forced to see you naked.

Yeah, we got plenty of fears we could play if we wanted to.

6 posted on 10/08/2004 11:29:49 AM PDT by Chad Fairbanks (How do you ask a hamster to be the last hamster to die for a mistake?)
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To: Area Freeper
Terror fears? I'll give you terror fears!


7 posted on 10/08/2004 11:29:58 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: Blzbba

Oopps. Sorry.


8 posted on 10/08/2004 11:30:00 AM PDT by Area Freeper (From John Kerry, they get a "yes/no/maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies)
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To: sarasota
Please don't post her picture, I'm nauseated enough!
9 posted on 10/08/2004 11:30:04 AM PDT by Pharmer (How am I supposed to rule the world when I surrounded by freakin liberal idiots!)
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To: Area Freeper

If "Terror" is the only card he has, he better hope her picture is on it.


10 posted on 10/08/2004 11:30:47 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Area Freeper

Hateful NAG Hag!


11 posted on 10/08/2004 11:30:58 AM PDT by Polyxene (For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel - Martin Luther)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

My eyes!!!! My lunch!!


12 posted on 10/08/2004 11:31:10 AM PDT by Pharmer (How am I supposed to rule the world when I surrounded by freakin liberal idiots!)
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To: Area Freeper

GMCTSSPOHT: Great Minds Choose the Same Scary Photo of Helen Thomas.


13 posted on 10/08/2004 11:31:21 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: IGOTMINE
Helen is a goblin with bad timing. Imagine her embarassment at having this piece appear the same day as Bremer's Op-ed in the NYT slamming people like her who took his words out of context.

Shut up, Helen. Please.

14 posted on 10/08/2004 11:31:49 AM PDT by Pete
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To: All

Now now helen, there is no reason to get ugly.


15 posted on 10/08/2004 11:32:07 AM PDT by new cruelty
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To: Area Freeper
In a way she is right...

It is the only card they cannot spin!

16 posted on 10/08/2004 11:32:40 AM PDT by bigjoesaddle (Shrug)
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To: Area Freeper

Well Helen it is the Ace of Spades that he is playing.... It is about Terrorism STUPID... or haven't you been paying attention to recent history...

We reap what we sow and Bill Clinton planted the seeds of our demise... Thank God that George Bush acted and saved millions of americans probably including yours and your kids lives Helen... so get a clue...


17 posted on 10/08/2004 11:32:42 AM PDT by tomnbeverly (Global Tests in the defense of our Country are not supported by the CONSTITUTION.)
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To: Pharmer

Then stay away from post #7!


18 posted on 10/08/2004 11:32:54 AM PDT by sarasota
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To: Area Freeper

If you logically invert all of HELLen's statements, you will arrive at the truth.

She is truly a gifted propagandist!


19 posted on 10/08/2004 11:32:58 AM PDT by Edgerunner (If kerry gets elected, he will be impeached within a year...)
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To: Pete

Does anyone have this Hag's email address? I want to send off a "broad" side...She needs to retire!!!


20 posted on 10/08/2004 11:33:31 AM PDT by cmiller623 (The Johns say they eschew capitalism but Kerry married wealth and Edwards sued wealth)
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