Gorelick Licked

His testimony is likely to be overshadowed by the president's news conference, but Attorney General John Ashcroft served notice yesterday that he is one administration player not afraid at all to go on offense against the Democratic louts on the so-called 9/11 commission. The full effect of the bombshell he dropped yesterday afternoon will take some time to settle.

"The single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents," he said in his stirring and air-clearing opening remarks. "Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall."

Who built and reinforced this wall? Ashcroft pointed to Justice Department guidelines from 1995 that "imposed draconian barriers to communications between law enforcement and intelligence communities." It was a system "destined to fail." He pointed to investigations impeded by these rules, including efforts that might have nabbed three of the 9/11 conspirators weeks if not days before the attacks.

Then he got to his real point. The commission itself may not have known of the 1995 memorandum that laid out these guidelines -- "so I have declassified it for you and the public to review," Ashcroft told the commission. Next, the dagger: "Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this Commission."

Ashcroft did not need to name names for all to know that he had just outed Jamie Gorelick, the long-time number two in the Clinton Justice Department and one of the most transparently partisan Democrats on the 9/11 commission.

Not only did Ashcroft add to the growing pressure on Gorelick to testify before the commission rather than serve on it, specifically about what she and the administration she served failed to do about terrorism. Above all, he discredited her in the eyes of her fellow commissioners. Clearly she had never informed them of this memorandum. Now they were caught by surprise and made to look foolish.

One could detect the power of Ashcroft's bombshell in the subsequent questioning. Richard Ben-Veniste's edge turned to smarm. He greeted the two surprise guests who had accompanied Ashcroft to the hearing, his respected former deputy Larry Thompson and Solicitor General Ted Olson. Ben-Veniste referred to him as "Mr. Olson," and offered renewed condolences on the death of Barbara Olson on 9/11. With Olson on Ashcroft's side, there was no way he could look bad.

Ben-Veniste's only pointed question proved an embarrassment, repeating as it did morning press stories fed by Democrat leaks to the effect that Ashcroft would be asked about why he had started flying in government planes and not commercially before 9/11. When Ashcroft replied that all his personal flying had continued to be done commercially, as was his wife's, Ben-Veniste was left red-faced, grasping at a dwindling number of straws.

But he couldn't have been more red-faced than Gorelick. Initially she tried mouthing denials to fellow commissioners that she was author of the memo. But when a copy was handed to her, listing her as initialed author, she had nowhere to hide.

Her round of questions came last. Unlike Bob Kerrey, say, who was cordial with Ashcroft and even said it was good to see the AG "on the mend" after his recent hospitalization and operation, Gorelick established no human contact during her half-hearted queries -- none of which engaged the central point of Ashcroft's opening statement. The Democrats wanted to play hardball, but ended up clubbed on the head themselves.

Wlady Pleszczynski is executive editor of The American Spectator and editor of its website.

1 posted on 04/13/2004 9:25:14 PM PDT by hope

good post. I was not plugged into today's testimony, did this get any media coverage at all?

2 posted on 04/13/2004 9:28:07 PM PDT by oceanview

The hole card Woody, the hole card.

3 posted on 04/13/2004 9:28:55 PM PDT by jwalsh07

To: oceanview; hope

Did the Jersey Girls boycott Ashcroft's testimony? I noticed the room was a lot less crowded all day.

4 posted on 04/13/2004 9:30:23 PM PDT by Spotsy (Bush-Cheney '04)

5 posted on 04/13/2004 9:30:27 PM PDT by Sister_T (Democrats AND The Partisan Press are the REAL enemies to freedom in the world!)

Ashcroft was awesome today it would seem. I guess he was destined for this job.

6 posted on 04/13/2004 9:30:34 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Harpseal, I miss you man.)

I only watch Fox...It was not talked about in any detail form.

7 posted on 04/13/2004 9:31:45 PM PDT by hope (How far will your passion take you?)

Get out yer tinfoil hats - I just thank up a thunk!

The Gorelick rules were meant to ensure that "no 'proactive' investigative efforts or technical coverages" of terrorist suspects be carried out on U.S. soil.

The Murrah Bldg in OK city was blown up on April 19, 1995.

Exactly what date in 1995 was that Gorelick memo published?

8 posted on 04/13/2004 9:33:24 PM PDT by mfulstone

I'd wondered why in the world she'd been allowed to serve on this commission.

Now I know.

Points to the Pubs for some brilliant politics. Nice setup and smash, well done.

9 posted on 04/13/2004 9:33:45 PM PDT by HarryCaul

10 posted on 04/13/2004 9:34:48 PM PDT by LiteKeeper

This needs to be bumped for a week.
Great, great post.

11 posted on 04/13/2004 9:35:27 PM PDT by Lancey Howard

Gorelick has a clear conflict of interest here. She should either resign from the commission and arrange to testify before, it or be thrown off and subpoenaed to testify (I assume these guys have subpoena power).

12 posted on 04/13/2004 9:35:40 PM PDT by KellyAdmirer

13 posted on 04/13/2004 9:35:43 PM PDT by Lancey Howard

It's not difficult to imagine a number of reasons why Hillary's butt girl would need to create such a wall.

14 posted on 04/13/2004 9:36:55 PM PDT by hope (How far will your passion take you?)

I was in the car when I heard this and all I could say was 'Just damn!' Ashcroft brought his own MOAB!

15 posted on 04/13/2004 9:37:10 PM PDT by Petronski (I'm not always cranky.)

Why do I get the feeling that the Republicans have been sandbagging? Every time I get down in the dumps and feel like the Republicans are letting the scumbag Democrats slap them around, they come up with a bombshell like this. Great stuff.

16 posted on 04/13/2004 9:37:24 PM PDT by Lancey Howard

Exactly what date in 1995 was that Gorelick memo published?

Curiously, there is no date on the memo.

17 posted on 04/13/2004 9:38:05 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Why not go out on a limb, isn't that where the fruit is?)

18 posted on 04/13/2004 9:38:43 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)

Yes, it was carried live by all the major networks. Attorney Gen. Ashcroft is straight out of central casting, and EXACTLY the right guy for these times.

My spidey sense immediately started tingling when Gorelick started badgering witnesses from day one. I wondered where do they get these people, and why are they in charge of _anything_, much less matters of national import? I *knew* she was bad news, and today I found out exactly why.

19 posted on 04/13/2004 9:39:04 PM PDT by Freedom4US

The libs are as anti-America as they come. IF, they could claim mere stupidity as an excuse for their shameful performances,,,,,,then they should be jailed or hung for being such stupid assholes.

20 posted on 04/13/2004 9:39:11 PM PDT by Waco

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