Blog For Arizona

Clark Drops the Dime on Bush

On 60 Minutes Clarke indicts the Bush Administration for their Iraq tinted glasses in no uncertain terms. He condems Bush for an obsessive focus on Iraq with no evidence whatever. Clarke slams Bush for running for re-election on terrorism when he did nothing to prevent 9/11 and diverted our resources into a pointless war in Iraq.

The main defense that the Buish Administration raises is that Clarke is politically motivated because otherwise he would not have waited until now to go public. McClellan said:

"Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he's raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let's look at the politics of it. His best buddy is Rand Beers, who is the principal foreign policy advisor to Senator Kerry's campaign. The Kerry campaign went out and immediately put these comments up on their website that Mr. Clarke made."

The problem is, that he did not wait. He's been saying the same thing since mid 2002 when he left the Administration and Time ran a cover story on the subject. But the press was not paying any attention and the story didn't find it's legs with the major media until now that the campaign is heating up and Clarke has released a book on the subject. Clarke clearly passes the consistency test. Bush will have some serious explaining to do when Clarke testifies to the 9/11 commission tomorrow.

DeLulio, O'Neil, and now Clarke: how long can the extreme criticisms of several former cabinet and high level Administration officials be brushed off as sour grapes? At some point it becomes clear that the Bush Administration is simply so political, and so inept, that even their own allies can't stand the smell of them. Is it going to take a mass defection from the Administration, a joint Bush effigy burning, and a petition from a vast chunk of the Executive Branch for people to begin to realize that we are watching a failed Administration dissolve?

posted by Michael Bryan @ 3/22/2004 10:49:00 PM