And They'll Be Back For More
The vultures are gone for now. Political opportunists like Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle, who gave the appearance of support for President Bush following September 11th, let their true colors show last week with barely subtle attempts on W's credibility.
"Was there a failure of intelligence," cried Gephardt with what Washington Times editor in Chief Wesley Pruden called today "well rehearsed outrage."
"These are things we need to find out," Gephardt said, while Daschle "flailed about in equally high dudgeon," according to Pruden.
"Why did it take eight months for us to receive the information?" said Daschle. "I'm concerned about whether or not the public was adequately protected."
Meanwhile Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who charged President Bush several weeks ago with knowing about the attacks beforehand, claimed vindication on her official website.
" "I've been told to 'sit down and shut up' over and over again," Miss McKinney said. "Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people."
In an interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, Miss McKinney also had said Mr. Bush's motivation for ignoring the warnings might have been that "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war."
That was a week ago.
"There's a sniff of politics in the air," President Bush said then. And he was right. Those who are more interested in politics than in the nation's good "thought they had at last found a big and dirty stick with which to cudgel George W. Bush just as spring was about to give way to summer and then autumn, and the November elections," wrote Pruden today.
But after intelligent, somewhat unbiased people had a chance to look at the facts of just what information was available that might have been missed, it became quickly evident that these dogs were howling at the moon.
"What you have are some folks trying to do -- and unfortunately in a fairly accusatory way -- take the benefit of 20-20 hindsight with pre-9/11 information and trying to impart upon it a post-9/11 wisdom," Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said in
an interview on May 18. That is a brilliant summation.
Andrew Sullivan, a political pundit who is a curious mixture of homosexual and neo-conservative, hit the nail on the head also. "The real story here," he wrote on May 18, "is the press's (and the Democrats') need for a story about the war to change the climate of support for the president."
Yelling and waving over a "possible" error or infraction by one's opponent is a common political trick .I think many politicians like Gephardt and Daschle play it because they know it will draw headlines, and while those citizens who keep themselves informed will follow it to its conclusion, those who glance every once and while at the front page may not.
And so, even though there was nothing to their questions and veiled charges, W's opponents may have scored some points with the politically ignorant.
The vultures are gone for now. Political opportunists like Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle, who gave the appearance of support for President Bush following September 11th, let their true colors show last week with barely subtle attempts on W's credibility.
"Was there a failure of intelligence," cried Gephardt with what Washington Times editor in Chief Wesley Pruden called today "well rehearsed outrage."
"These are things we need to find out," Gephardt said, while Daschle "flailed about in equally high dudgeon," according to Pruden.
"Why did it take eight months for us to receive the information?" said Daschle. "I'm concerned about whether or not the public was adequately protected."
Meanwhile Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who charged President Bush several weeks ago with knowing about the attacks beforehand, claimed vindication on her official website.
" "I've been told to 'sit down and shut up' over and over again," Miss McKinney said. "Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people."
In an interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, Miss McKinney also had said Mr. Bush's motivation for ignoring the warnings might have been that "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war."
That was a week ago.
"There's a sniff of politics in the air," President Bush said then. And he was right. Those who are more interested in politics than in the nation's good "thought they had at last found a big and dirty stick with which to cudgel George W. Bush just as spring was about to give way to summer and then autumn, and the November elections," wrote Pruden today.
But after intelligent, somewhat unbiased people had a chance to look at the facts of just what information was available that might have been missed, it became quickly evident that these dogs were howling at the moon.
"What you have are some folks trying to do -- and unfortunately in a fairly accusatory way -- take the benefit of 20-20 hindsight with pre-9/11 information and trying to impart upon it a post-9/11 wisdom," Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said in
an interview on May 18. That is a brilliant summation.
Andrew Sullivan, a political pundit who is a curious mixture of homosexual and neo-conservative, hit the nail on the head also. "The real story here," he wrote on May 18, "is the press's (and the Democrats') need for a story about the war to change the climate of support for the president."
Yelling and waving over a "possible" error or infraction by one's opponent is a common political trick .I think many politicians like Gephardt and Daschle play it because they know it will draw headlines, and while those citizens who keep themselves informed will follow it to its conclusion, those who glance every once and while at the front page may not.
And so, even though there was nothing to their questions and veiled charges, W's opponents may have scored some points with the politically ignorant.
posted by Jon at
11:30 AM
