Rice testimony keeps focus on U.S. security

Washington Times ^ | 4/01/04 | Bill Sammon

[kattracks]

Republicans are pleased that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will testify about September 11 because it keeps the presidential campaign focused on national security

[marron]

The only people who care that Bush was or wasn't focusing on Bin Ladin versus Saddam versus the Chinese versus the North Koreans versus Khaddafi are people like us who care about national security and have varying concerns about the Bush team and his handling of the war.

And whatever our opinions on the matter, for us the idea of Kerry or Gore or either Clinton being in charge is nightmarish.

The people who are shocked, shocked, that Bush was planning to bring down Saddam early in his administration aren't going to vote for Bush whatever happens. These are the people who were warning about the deep snows of the Hindu Kush, and warning us about Afghanistan - Graveyard of Invaders, etcetera. Clarke impresses them, but they were never going to vote Republican. The key is that if they opposed going into Afghanistan after 9/11, and many of them did, how ever were they going to approve of it before 9/11?

Everyone is for the Afghan war now that it is won, as a debating ploy, but if it were ever in doubt all of the old opposition could be reconstituted in an instant.

The Clarke groupies miss that point, some of them were among the ones who would have opposed any kind of preemptive strike on Kabul. And while they demand to know why we didn't round up Al Qaeda here in the US, they still object to letting local law enforcement cooperate with FBI interviews of Arabs. So the Clarke phenomenon is entirely limited to the crowd that has hermetically walled itself off from the realities of war-fighting.

As for Clarke, he and his previous boss had 8 years to do something, at least from the 1993 World Trade Center attack forward, and at the end of two terms of office had yet to place the first ranger brigade into Afghanistan. The more he talks, I think, the more he reminds people of that fact.

[FRgal4u]

At least someone is starting to wake up and see the real downside for Kerry and the dims.

Bush had hit bottom with his negatives, the dim primaries, the endless parade of Bush bashing books. The American people had made a call on this president already, those willing to believe his intentions are good will ignore all the media noises, those who think he is "Hitler" will believe in just about anything. The Clarke book really surprises me in showing how rock solid the Bush supporting core is.

As long the media is highlighting the war of words between the WH and Clarke, the less media oxygen is there for Kerry. This comes at a period when aggressive negative ads were ran against Kerry. No policies, no rebuttals from Kerry will be heard.

In some ways, it does repeat the same situation of 2002 mid-term election. The dims spent the summer, and sept 02 "b*tching" the president not going to congress, to UN blah blah, they spent weeks and weeks of complains, dominating the news headline, and bammm, Bush beat them to a pulp during the Nov. election.


I am wondering what the Kerry camp is going to do here. The Condi train has left the station. The firestorm will ensure enormous ratings during Condi's testimony. If the dims are playing too hard on Condi, their hostilities (against a black woman) will be seen all over the tubes (black females are the most solid core for the dims), let alone they will make the 9/11 commission more political than it is now.

Sounds like Condi is about to say to the dims - "Who's your Mommy now!!!"

[Amalie]

"Who's your MOMMA now!?"

I LOVE IT!

However, all of this aside, the OPEC decisions this week show there is a GLOBAL effort underway now to unseat the man who keeps his word from the White House. The American sheeple will be paying at the pump; even money says $3.00 plus per gallon by summer, which will slow the economy and lead to the shrill drill from the Hill. So, I guess if that war in Iraq was just about oil, we are going to need some quickly.