Obvious, but always good for a chuckle!
CD
.
Drudge, 11/01/2001:
Posted on 05/20/2002 8:57:19 AM PDT by Jean S
During his press briefing with Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle could barely contain the smile on his face as he discussed what he believed the Bush Administration knew about possible terrorist attacks prior to September 11.
"I wouldn't know," Daschle said with a smile, adding quickly that he was never briefed on those issues by the White House, nor did he ever ask.
Daschle should be smiling, and White House staffers know why. The initial leaks about the intelligence briefings President Bush received last August came from Democratic staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, not the FBI or the CIA as some on Capitol Hill would have us believe.
According to one knowledgeable Senate source, the Senate and House intelligence committees received some of the briefing material prepared by the CIA for the president's daily review about three weeks ago. This, as part of their ongoing review of the CIA's analysis of potential terrorism threats leading up to September 11.
"It wouldn't be the kind [of intelligence information] the committee staffers would normally see in the course of their work," says the source. "Those briefings are limited to the White House, the President, the Vice President, Condi Rice, senators and representatives don't get those briefings. I don't know if the CIA intended for that material to end up here or not. It might have been an oversight. No matter now, the cat is out of the bag."
According to a senior Democratic Senate aide, the word has been out for more than six weeks that "We have to get Bush," says the source. "Daschle is absolutely desperate. Gephardt, I guess is absolutely desperate. Bush's polling numbers weren't moving down, he was bulletproof. Everyone was under orders to keep their eyes and ears open for anything we could use."
It's not clear whether Daschle was aware of the potentially explosive information prior to its being put in the hands of Washington reporters. "I'd be surprised if he did," says a senior Democratic leadership aide. "It isn't the kind of thing he's want to really see or know about beforehand. But we know someone friendly to our side did the leaking. We knew if we could get something out there, the media wouldn't try to put the leak into political perspective for the public, just the potential for a 'Briefing-gate.' And, as usual, the press did our job for us."
LEATHER BOUND
Unlike the times when then President Bill Clinton had to go shopping for a university or a site for his presidential library -- remember the embarrassment when Georgetown and Yale turned him down? -- schools are already lining up to snatch up a library deal for George W. Bush.
But Baylor University is going about it the wrong way. Last month, as it prepares to make a formal pitch to the Big Guy in Washington, the Texas college school sent representatives to Little Rock to spend a few days with Clinton Library staffers and fundraisers.
"We talked to them about our fundraising problems, highlighted the amount of planning it takes to put a deal like this together, all the blood and sweat," says a Clinton Library source. "Baylor views this as a huge opportunity to raise its visibility. Hearing them talk made us realize we should have sought a tighter relationship with Mr. Clinton's schools."
But those schools didn't want the relationship or couldn't or wouldn't provide the cash the Clintons were asking for up front to grant them "library privileges." Instead, Clinton cut a deal for a slight association with the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, where he taught law part-time decades ago. The school is housing some of Clinton's papers and undertaking an "oral history" of his presidency. That's about it.
Bush has apparently expressed an interest in Baylor, as well as the University of Texas in Austin, where the library could become a cash cow for the state school if the legislature budgeted to cover some of its construction costs. "It would also help Mr. Bush avoid some of the embarrassing fundraising moments Mr. Clinton is going through right now," says a White House staffer.
Despite Baylor's eagerness to get its foot in the door at the White House, the president himself has told staff he's not interested in thinking about a library. "He says he has six more years to worry about that," says the White House aide.
Don't forget McAuliffe's complicity in that.
-PJ
Well, IIRC Monica Lewinski had a Top Secret clearance. 'Nuff said?
And it's highly likely that many staffers without clearances nevertheless have access to the data.
This incident gives the Executive Branch an opportunity to engage in a little mischief with Daschle's folks: security audits, background checks, leak investigations, and a requirement for proper security procedures are just a few of the entirely defensible moves that Bush can make to cramp the D's style.
And Daschle would be a fool to complain....
And this is the statement that came back to bite him via the Friday 17 May AP wire release. Whether there is culpability directly in the Whitehouse is in doubt, but a case is building that the CIA and FBI ignored warnings that hijacked airliner missiles were a very real potential threat.
He would have taken a political hit over that, but it would still have been the right thing to do.
Obvious, but always good for a chuckle!
CD
.
Drudge, 11/01/2001:
Almost as much so as... dare I say... President Hillary!
Excellent point. It was rumored at the time that the 'toons were doing just that. I certainly wouldn't put it past them!
And you sound like you're trying to paint me with that stupid "Bush-hater" brush to avoid accepting valid criticism of the current administration. I matters not what the Bush or Clinton admins did or didn't do w/r/t al Quaeda prior to 9/11. The buck stops in the Oval Office. All of the intelligence failings of the FBI and CIA - past and present - will fall at GWB's feet, whether we think it's justified or not. It's his job, it's that simple. That 90% of the spinning in the press is being done by the RATS is to Bush's credit.
And the AP newswire that came out on Friday 17 May did reveal that the intelligence community was at least provided with a written psych profile describing a US hijacking threat by ME terrorists. The only reason that this isn't resonating is because it happened on Clinton's watch, but Bush owns the FBI and CIA now - somebody better be standing in the middle of a big carpet in the White House answering some mighty tough questions.
Therefore: they should lose the honor!
Bush could take his library to UT, SMU, Rice, Texas Tech -- any number of other places, unless Baylor GROVELS for their indiscretions and apologizes profusely! Keep in mind that UT already hosts Lyndon Johnson's library.
As I said before, other than racial profiling, what could have been done? Close down all of the airlines? Tell the American people not to fly? Or go after the people who are planning to attack us. Bush picked the only reasonable solution of the three. He did something, and it was significant. The attack happened before it could be put into action, but he did act on the information.
We agree. But that won't stop the tarring and feathering. It will go on in the press and will commence in earnest amongst the people the very second the next lethal terrorist attack hits the United States. After that, the administration will need to fear that if they don't profile ME immigrants, the citizenry will, with gusto.
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