[NYCVirago]

I wonder if it was to help split the conservative vote in the Primaries? And why didn't Sid mention who Clarke voted for in the general election??

I think your assumption is correct on the McCain vote. Clarke is claiming that he voted for Bush in the general election, but I'm not buying it. As I posted in another thread on this, he sounds like a freeper troll, emphasizing that he's a Republican, yet claiming with a straight face that Clinton's No. 1 priority was terrorism. Heck, I don't think even Clintonistas would claim that! Clinton's No. 1 priority (besides the obvious) was the economy. And if Clarke really believed that Clinton was so focused on terrorism, then why didn't he vote for Gore, Clinton's successor?

Not to mention Clarke saying that we need to understand why the terrorists hate us -- that's something a peacenik lib would say, not a Republican. It just doesn't pass the smell test. We freepers are very experienced with figuring out when somebody is pretending to be a Republican; unfortunately, the media isn't!

[kcvl]

Kyl questions attacks on Bush team in Clarke book


Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau
Mar. 25, 2004 12:00 AM


WASHINGTON - Richard A. Clarke's attacks on the Bush administration may help boost his book sales, but they are "not a full or fair assessment of the views I know he held," according to Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl.

Clarke, the former counterterrorism official with the administrations of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, previously testified before a Senate subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security that Kyl heads.

"Dick Clarke appeared before my subcommittee during both the Clinton and Bush years, and I know his concerns about the government's response to terrorism long preceded the current administration," Kyl said.

Kyl said he is surprised Clarke is saving his sharpest rebukes for the Bush administration in placing the blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, rather than the Clinton team.

"Indeed, if we're going to start assessing blame for 9/11, then one must consider that the Clinton administration had eight years to confront the al-Qaida threat and the Bush administration less than eight months," Kyl said.

Kyl then extended this challenge: "Until Dick Clarke produces his detailed strategy memo that would have toppled the Taliban government in record time, captured or killed two-thirds of known al-Qaida leaders, bolstered dramatically intelligence-sharing here at home and assembled one of the greatest global coalitions in history to go after terrorists all over the world, I'll find it hard to believe he had a better plan for fighting terrorism than George W. Bush."

[Eroteme]

I agree. Clarke's testimony was certainly crafted to give the impression that he's a registered Republican. However, that's not what he said.

What he said was that when he went to vote in the Virginia primary, he asked for a Republican ballot. As I heard that, it struck me as an odd wording, unnecessarily precise if all he wanted to do was say he was a Republican. At that moment, I could hear the sound of tap shoes on the head of a pin.

Virginia does not require voters to declare party membership.