DICK'S TALL TALE

New York Post ^ | 3/23/04 | JOHN PODHORETZ

[kattracks]

March 23, 2004 -- RICHARD Clarke is the greatest man who has ever strode this planet's surface. I know this because I have just read his book, "Against All Enemies."

Some might suggest that the book is a distorted, false, sour-grapes account from a demoted government official who wants to settle scores and destroy the Bush administration in which he served as a holdover staffer from the Clinton years.

[RichInOC]

Don't Be A Dick.

[lainde]

What a despicable vermin. I would not have been as generous by not assigning blame to the past administration. I think President Bush expected the Clintonistas to behave honorably or at least be ashamed of their security failures. Guess he just doesn't understand the rat mentality and genetic lack of shame. And they just keep repeating the big lies over and over knowing some of them will be eventually accepted as "truth".

[marktwain]

The Clilnton administration is a stain on this country.

[samtheman]

This is part of an orchestrated campaign. The attack dogs are unleashed. Clarke, Carter, Kennedy. And in when Bush tries to defend himself Kerry steps forward and says: look, he's going negative.

[witnesstothefall]

Ouch, that's gotta leave a mark. The self-loathing Rats in this country have been politicizing the victims of 9/11 and the fallen and injured soldiers in the WoT since early October 2001 as we were entering Afghanistan.

No calumny is too mild for such hollow, hateful people.

[witnesstothefall]

.....or too strong.

[PogySailor]

Is this really a sentiment that mainstream Democrats want to support and echo?

Have you not been paying attention for the last three years John? Except for a very brief period following 9/11/01, the Democrats and the Partisan Media have been saying just that.

[kcvl]

Clarke is known for his aggressive -- sometimes abrasive -- personality and for his willingness to bypass bureaucratic channels. Under Clinton, he was known to contact Special Forces and other military commanders in the field directly, irritating the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon.

Some senior CIA officials under Clinton complained that Clarke pressed them to launch covert programs without adequate preparation or study, said Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.

"He gave the impression he was somewhat of a cowboy," Cannistraro said. "There was no love lost between Clarke and the CIA."

Clarke managed largely to avoid Washington's finger-pointing over failures to anticipate the September 11 attacks, even though he was the top counterterrorism adviser and he was replaced by the White House in that role less than one month later.

[kcvl]

"Last year Clarke's best friend, Rand Beers, quit as the White House's counterterrorism chief after complaining — over glasses of wine on Clarke's front porch — about the wrong-headedness of Bush's plan to invade Iraq. Beers is now a principal foreign-policy adviser to [Democratic candidate John] Kerry."

[binger]

Clarke, eyes wide shut...

[SkyPilot]

I love the sarcsasm of this piece.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[kattracks]

ping

[Fiddlstix]

Best Article I've read so far........

[TC Rider]

Oooh, smackdown!

[Samwise]

John Podhoretz's new book is "Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane."

The book title is a misnomer. Liberals didn't need Dubya to drive them insane. They did that all by themselves.

[RightOnline]

He's SUCH a jerk.............

[mombonn]

Remember when Alexander Haig created a firestorm right after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by claiming he was "in charge"?

LOL - that's EXACTLY what came to my mind as I was reading this tripe.

I saw a clip of him on 60 Minutes yesterday. He has eyes like a shark.

[HateBill]

In the months after 9/11, the Bush administration refused - absolutely refused - to try to blame the attacks on the Clinton administration's failure of vision. The nation needed to be united in its determination and could not afford to surrender to finger-pointing.

It wouldn't have done them any good to try to blame the attacks on the Clinton administration because (1) anyone who is not a leftwing wacko understood it, even Clinton, who went around lower Manhattan right after 9/11 haranging a passerby that he was not responsible; (2) it would have turned the war on terror to a partisan battle when the nation needed most to be unified (it has settled into being a partisan battle anyway, but George Bush had almost unanimous support when he went into Afghanistan which he most certainly would not have had, had he chosen to attack Clinton before he attacked Afghanistan); (3) it would be out of character for George W. Bush.

One of the truly great personal characteristics of George W. Bush is that his public veneer is that of a classy good-old-boy while he gets his enemies to hang themselves.

I would say that by and large now Clinton is thought of as a buffoon. If not, Hillary would have run in 2004 for what would have been thought of as the "rightful restoration" (perhaps "leftful restoration"). That Hillary is sitting out 2004 is the greatest testament to George W. Bush's strategery in *not* attacking Clinton in the aftermath of 9/11.