[fight_truth_decay]

......."if I had known"

Quotes by William Jefferson Clinton:

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Bill Clinton (February 4, 1998)

"If (Saddam) accepts (the UN Resolutions to disarm), force will not be necessary. If he refuses or continues to evade his obligations through more tactics of delay and deception, he and he alone will be to blame for the consequences." - President Bill Clinton (February 17, 1998)

"Well, he (Saddam) will conclude that the international community has lost its will (if they do not act). He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal." - President Bill Clinton (February 17, 1998)

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. We want to seriously reduce his capacity to threaten his neighbors." - President Bill Clinton (February 17, 1998)

[Paul Atreides]

Ah, the media's never-ending crusade to salvage Bubba's precious legacy.

[MamaLucci]

Time for Louis Freeh to write a tell-all book.

[JeeperFreeper]

Didn't the Klintoon's fire all the U.S. attorneys when he took office? So now he's saying he can't get Freeh to resign to "spend more time with his family"?

[Starve The Beast]

If aliens landed in space ships tomorrow and showed us how to end world hunger, Clinton would make endless claims - against all available evidence - about how he was obsessed with contacting aliens during his presidency. And he would have succeeded, too, if it hadn't been for that mean ol' Kenneth Starr.

[TexasCajun]

But doesn't this really depend on what the definition of "IF" is?

[Sans-Culotte]

Even if Clinton's (and Klein's) assertions are true, it merely underscores why sexual shenanigans like those of B.J. Clinton can ultimately undermine national security. Defenders of the Toon ("he only lied about sex") used to snicker when conservatives would suggest scenarios whereby a Prez in a compromising position could do this. Well, apparently, the Lewinsky thing accomplished exactly that (at least according to Clinton and Klein

[ClearCase_guy]

Why did Clinton have the affair? "Because I could."

Why didn't Clinton fire Freeh? "Because I couldn't."

What a small man.

[Alberta's Child]

In Time itself, Klein called Clinton's case against Starr "powerful."

Hold on a moment while I laugh my @ss off . . . The disgraced lawyer who lost his license to practice is accusing the prosecutor in this case of "misconduct"? LOL!!!

"One of the other things that Clinton told us was that he would have fired Louis Freeh as FBI Director if it hadn't been for the media and for the fact that we would have associated that firing with the investigation of the Lewinsky scandal."

I agree with Mr. Klein on this one, but my conclusion is different than his: This is precisely why Bill Clinton should have resigned -- because his ability to function as president was effectively compromised.

[Mobilemitter]

Klein suggested "we might have had a better shot at rolling up those al-Qaeda cells if Bill Clinton had been free to fire Freeh."

What about suggesting... "if Bill Clintoon had been anything but a morally bankrupt self-serving rat and paid enough attention to keep his barrel out of the dirt he could have fired freely....." or something like that... :)

[gathersnomoss]

"Klein suggested "we might have had a better shot at rolling up those al-Qaeda cells if Bill Clinton had been free to fire Freeh."

Again, the "kids" are no longer in control. Thank God.

[KarlInOhio]

If I had known that when we tripled the counterterrorism funds none of it was put into improving the data processing and interconnecting with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, if I had known that the Executive Order I signed fairly early in my Administration ordering the CIA and the FBI to exchange high-level people and cooperate more hadn't been done, I might have done so.

What about the "Chinese Wall" between the FBI and CIA which was increased by Clinton appointee Jamie Gorelick? I think that was primarily to keep the FBI from seeing the CIA's info on Chinese campaign payments and illegal purchase of ICBM technology. Now why is that same Gorelick on the commission to investigate the inaction which led to 9/11?

[LincolnLover]

I wasn't too annoyed by Joe Klein--he is what he is--but I was VERY annoyed by Bob Novak's role on the panel as the counter to Klein's cheerleading.

Bob's a good writer and he sure has his sources, but his days as an eloquent debater or speaker (if he ever had any in the first place) are long, long, long past.

A MTP transcript of Novak's comments yesterday would read, "I, ah, err, uh, err, ah, uh..."

Someone like Jonah Goldberg woulda hammered Klein.

[mewzilla]

Dear Mr. Klein: If Toon wanted to get UBL, why didn't Toon rescind EO 12333?

[Tallguy]

But since the FBI chief gets a presumptive 10-year term, I didn't feel what I thought was outrageous treatment of us, particularly by him personally, was worth replacing him, because all of you [in the media] would have said, Well, he's doing it because he's got something to hide, and I didn't have anything to hide.

Hey Bubba, sometimes when you sit in "the Big Chair" you have to take a 'political hit' in order to do the "Right Thing" for the country -- but then it's all about you, isn't it?

[ought-six]

Bill Clinton is a perpetual adolescent. He will never take responsibility for any of his actions, and indeed is likely inherently incapable of even doing so, so deep is his pathological childishness. His immaturity is legendary, and the only thing that distinguishes him from most thirteen or fourteen year-olds is his lack of any noticeable acne. Bubba needs to be bagging groceries somewhere, not playing the poseur on TV talk shows.

[TASMANIANRED]

The administration transferred responsibility for terrorism to the FBI then shackled them with the Gorelic memo and then failed to fund them to do the job.