Bill Clinton Defends Handling of Bin Laden
Former president accuses Chris Wallace of carrying out ‘conservative hit job’ on him after ‘FOX News Sunday’ host asked him about his administration’s handling of Al Qaeda threat.
Remember when our President was an intelligent, capable, inquisitive sort who wanted to do the right things for the right reasons? Remember when our President got himself into office without having to resort to skullduggery, dishonesty, manipulation, and outright thievery? Remember when America wasn’t universally hated around the world as a bully and a thugocracy?
Perhaps you don’t, but I do, and it wasn’t all that long ago. Though most Conservatives have twisted themselves into angry pretzels in their hatred of all things Clinton, the reality never matched the vitriol. During the Clinton years, the White House was a vibrant, active place. Government may not have always worked, but it certainly wasn’t from lack of effort. Bill Clinton was a leader and a statesman, and the reception he recveived when he travelled abroad was indicative of the high regard most of the rest of world held America in. My, how things can change in five years, eh?
Watching Clinton thoroughly embarrass Chris Wallace last night was a thoroughly satisfying experience. Wallace tried his best to trot out all of the old Conservative half-truths, lies, and disinformation about Clinton’s presidency, but the former President was having none of it. In fact, once he figured out what Wallace was up to, he turned the tables on Wallace, and made him look like the inept partisan imbecile he plays on television.
Of course, Clinton couldn’t have claimed to be surprised that an appearance on Fox News Channel turned into a political hatchet job. The man has been out of office for five years now, and Conservatives are still foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of his name. He’s still being blamed for things that, five years later, are long since out of his control. Even so, Clinton accepted the challenge and met the crapstorm head on. He made Wallace look like just another chump journalist like so many others who have misunderestimated his passion, his intelligence, and his debating skills. Chris Wallace is an idiot and a hack; all Bill Clinton did was to make this fact painfully obvious.
I miss President Clinton. President Chimpy McFlightsuit couldn’t hold his jock.
STILL GLAD YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN??
I remember when the 9-11 Commission was cranking up, Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor stole top secrect documents from the national archives, and destroyed them.
And when he was caught, he lied about it (sound familiar?) It would have been different if Mr. Berger was having sex with the documents, but it's pretty obvious to those with any thread of objectivity that his mission was to protect the legacy of the greatest politician ever.
We will never know what the documents he destroyed contained, nor can anyone be sure that he didn't also add documents that cast a more favorable light on master's administration.
This bother's me.
Uh...I'm assuming there's a point you trying to make, Bob...though what it is is beyond me.
Amazing how some people can always find something to complain about, isn't it? Richard Clarke's book - which absolutely destroys George Bush and his adminstration - wasn't based on Sandy Berger's pilfered notes. Clarke didn't need them because he had plenty of his own. Sandy Berger was stupid and, as you point out, did plead guilty, a lesson lots of Republicans ought to learn. We have no idea why he did what he did, but he sure as heck didn't destroy all of the evidence of mismanagement, incompetence and lying by those who got us into this godawful mess.
Clinton was magnificent, and it's about goddamn time. He and others need to keep it up.
I made two points.
First, that Clinton was so worried about details of his failed foriegn policy becoming known that he sent one of his minions on a mission to destroy all copies of a top secret report.
Come on! How do you "accidentally and inadvertantly" remove five copies of the same report??? Berger was well aware that anything he removed from that part of the Archives should have been logged with the staff and placed inside a locked brief case handcuffed to his wrist. It's pretty clear (at least to me) that he was sent there to protect the Clinton legacy from facts, and neither he nor Clinton gave a $#!t that doing so was against the law.
You and Dennis make my second point more clearly than I did -- Many people seem reluctant to recognize information that challenges their perception of the Clinton Administration as "the best ever." Who knows, maybe you'll get to vote for her again in 2008.
Bob...I have never characterized the Clinton Administration as the "best ever"...unless you're comparing and contrasting with the current band of neocon thugs. What I am saying is that too many reactionary thugs on the Right are so wrapped up in their hatred of all things Clinton that they have completely lost sight of that his Administration DID accomplish in eight years.
No, the man was hardly perfect...but at least he wasn't the craven opportunist and murderer currently in the Oval Office.
Republicans impeach a President who got his pole greased by an intern...and yet they treat a President who lied his way into a war that has actually increased the the of terrorism as some sort of hero.
What's wrong with this picture?
Now, if I could just get all of you intelligent, passionate people to see my side of 9.11, I'd die a happy man. Bless the blogs.
Indeed...it's not called mental masturbation for nothing.... ;p)
Now, if I could just get all of you intelligent, passionate people to see my side of 9.11, Iíd die a happy man.
Ditto.
You first, Adam.