[cyncooper]

I am not watching MSNBC as I keep saying, but I hope to hell Matthews and Fineman were listening to the aircraft usage of Ashcroft and don't let that madwoman spout her lies again.

She should not be allowed on the media at all with her off the wall comments anyway.

[Trust but Verify]

I'm incredibly proud of all the Bush Administration witnesses I have seen. Ashcroft is really clearing the bases with his testimony, IMO.

[fight_truth_decay]

In Chapter 17 of his book, Weinberger, more eloquently than I ever could, sums up the true national security failings and fallout of the Clinton presidency. And he does if from "outside the walls".

He rues the depth which Commander in Chief Clinton cut into the military muscle of this country. He corroborates the weak and the reckless employment of the U.S. military forces for largely domestic political gain. And he describes the severely reduced U.S. capability that President George W. Bush has inherited.

The larger picture he offers is that which I saw up close and personal. The challenging future he paints is the one I also see.The conclusions he draws are the ones I had already internalized as I walked out the East Wing gate that last time. Through the experiences that I witnessed and have documented, and from the lessons that Mr. Weinberger urges us to relearn, may this nation recover and never again have our national security interests treated with so much disdain and so little understanding.

With permission of the publisher, I offer this excerpt from Casper Weinberger's In the Arena on "the Dangers We Still Face."

pg 152, Dereliction of Duty by Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson Carrier of the "Nuclear football."