Say what??
"He made contributions to Democrats" is, by itself, evidence for mistrusting his claim to be a lifelong Republican. (It's not ROCK-SOLID PROOF against his claim to be a lifelong Republican, but it's certainly a reason to *mistrust* it.)
For example: I tell you about two people
-Person A made contributions to Democrats in recent years
-Person B didn't.
Now then, you tell me, which one's more likely to be a lifelong Republican in your view?
I personally think Clarke is an American hero. He is one of the few people in power to really try to do something about the al Qaeda threat.
Perhaps your standards for heroism are lower than mine, because to me, while "trying to do something" is nice, I'd be more impressed by actually DOING something.
Clarke had a high position and Bill Clinton's ear for eight years while "Al Qaeda" attacked the World Trade Center, possibly the Oklahoma City building (IN CLARKE'S OPINION!), Khobar towers, embassies in Africa, and USS Cole. I don't know what-all Clarke "tried" to do about all that, but let's summarize what they actually DID do:
-prosecution of, like, six guys for the '93 WTC bombing
-bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (JUSTIFIED BY CITING IRAQI LINKS)
-bombing of Iraqi intelligence headquarters (oh wait supposedly this was for other, non Al Qaeda related reasons, like... um....)
-intervention in a Yugoslavian civil war on behalf of Al Qaeda-linked Muslims
There's probably a few more items but I'm starting to get sick so I'll stop here.
All the meanwhile Clarke was apparently whispering in Clinton's ear the following words.... there's no possible linkage between Iraq and Al Qaeda... no possible linkage between Iraq and Al Qaeda
And then Bush asked him to investigate the possibility (just to look into it!) and he threw a hissy fit and wrote a book. Yup, some hero.
Both the Dems AND the Pubs come off very badly here.
Agreed, of course. 9/11 was obviously a failure.
But the one who comes off the worst in all this is Richard Clarke, in my opinion.
He seems to have fallen so deeply in love with his "Al Qaeda has no links" theory that he couldn't be bothered to ever challenge it. The more I hear about this guy and his infallible, indignant belief that anyone who asks him to look into Iraq-Al Qaeda links is a fool or "obsessed", the more convinced I become that Iraq was linked to Al Qaeda.
How many "lifelong Republicans" say that we need to understand why the terrorists hate us, like Clarke has said?
Listening to the press, eh, and not reading up on the facts?
Search for the thread on Christopher Shays to see how valuable Clarke appeared to him regarding threats.
Read up on how the Bush administration perceived that Clarke's suggestions, such as they were, did not go far enough.
And finally, why would you call a liar a "hero"?