G.O.P. Blames Clinton for Intelligence Failures

[thecrow]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/politics/21panel.html?ex=1091073600&en=9c215127be947f24&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE

SNIP
Republican leaders held a news conference at which they suggested that the report, which is scheduled to be made public on Thursday, would show that intelligence and law enforcement failures before the Sept. 11 attacks were more the responsibility of the Clinton administration than of the Bush administration.

"The report covers eight years of the Clinton administration and eight months of the Bush administration," Mr. Hastert said, insisting at the same time that he did not want to see the report turned into a "political football" during an election year.

SNIP

*ahem*
Didn't Clinton warn Smirky about the terrorist threat SPECIFICALLY NAMING OBL and tell him that this was the chief problem he would have to face in the coming months?
Didn't CLINTON disrupt the Millennium Plot, the Pacific airplanes plot and numerous other plots on the US SOIL?

And Hastert "doesn't want this to be a political football during an election year"?
Yeah uh huh sure.... ok Hastert....
How about 9-11 happened ON SMIRKY'S WATCH AFTER HE WAS WARNED AND WARNED AGAIN ? Wasn't it the Smirk in Charge who DROPPED THE FOOTBALL???
</rant>

[Beetwasher]

1. Now Who Didn't See That Coming?

If you didn't, you must have been living under a rock...

[fearnobush]

17. NYT's an other great COWARD news paper. Fears the truth.

Fears Sibel, Mary and Karen. Loves Ashcroft and Bu$h.

[IA_Seth]

37. Agreed

And in other news, the GOP is against abortion.

[lancdem]

2. Why don't we let the report speak for itself?

[mac56]

3. God, they're desperate.

nm

[killbotfactory]

4. What don't they blame on Clinton?

I'm pretty sure they blame the civil war and great depression on Clinton, too.

[nolabels]

18. The fall of Rome was caused by the Clenis

http://www.d.umn.edu/~mohs0025/funny/

[killbotfactory]

29. He was also really the voice of the snake in the Garden of Eden

Damn that Clenis!

[LittleApple81]

5. That is why REPUBLICANS got the report ONE DAY before the dems.

They have 24 more hours to spin to their heart's content.

[TEXASYANKEE]

6. Rewriting history already?

I just read Sidney Blumenthal's "Clinton Wars" and was astounded by how many speeches Clinton gave re:terrorism and OBL. Meanwhile, the GOP was sniffing his zipper and impeaching him. I'm afraid that the onus here, if the media would do the research and report accurately, is on the GOP and not the Clinton Administration.

[fearnobush]

7. Real Simple: Bu$h knew and the planes still flew.

Hard to blame a guy who was not in office at the time.

[mom cat]

34. I don't remember Clinton sitting and reading about a goat while the

towers burned. It wasn't Clinton who let the bin Laudins out of the country. And it was not Bill who diverted those in pursuit of Ossama to search for weapons of mythic delusion.

:dem:

[patdem]

8. Did I see Clinton up for re-election??? ...looking....around....No.....

well, if it is not a 'football' for relection...it is only because their baby is up for re-Selection and not Clinton..otherwise...it would be IMPEACH CLINTON!! What a bunch of wussies!!! Girly men I like to call them!!

[RobertSeattle]

9. This is LBN? Dog bites man!

:evilgrin:

[yellowcanine]

10. But Denny, who was actually president when the attack occured and had been

president for eight months? Uh - what happened to Denny?

[featherman]

11. Part 2 of Damage Control by desperate GOP

Sandy Berger = sloppy, possible criminal behavior
Ergo
Clinton Admin = sloppy, possibly criminal behavior
Ergo
It ain't OUR fault!
Fox News now has its lead story for the next several days.

[billybob537]

12. The MISERABLE FAILURES

Blaming the over achiever for making them look worse. :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[Tuttle]

31. Bill has incredible power

apparently they are willing to concede he was more in charge ninemonths after leaving office than Chimpy was, even after cutting all that mean old brush!

...now, watch this drive,
Tut-tut

[tom_paine]

13. As predictable as Hitler blaming the Jews. I fucking HATE Totalitarians!

Little difference, outside the use of overt racism and violence, between Busheviks and Nazis.

[mourningdove92]

14. I am wondering what is in the report that has them all

so very desperate to distract from it. I mean, to be honest, I did not expect much "meat" from this report. Now I am starting to wonder.

[lancdem]

21. Me, too

If the report did point the finger at Clinton, there would be no need to say so. The report would speak for itself.

[MallRat]

15. Is it me, or is the House GOP leadership overplaying their hand?

First, they go to town on the Sandy Berger thing. Now, they bleat endlessly about how Bush can do no wrong, and 9/11 is entirely Clinton's fault.

Maybe it's just me, but if I'm an independent, undecided voter, I would be really put off by the shrillness and desperate spinning they're doing here.

Am I wrong here, or are these constant GOP rapid response photo-ops, with all the handwringing and gnashing of teeth, going to backfire spectacularly?

-MR

[lancdem]

20. They always overplay their hand

They did it endlessly during the Clinton administration. Most times, it ended up backfiring.

[MallRat]

23. Did it?

It really backfired on the GOP when they wrested control of the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the White House, and most the governorships, right?

Wow. I wish the Democrats could screw things up like that.

(/sarcasm)

-MR

[Media_Lies_Daily]

33. If you look back at the 1996 mid-term elections, I think you'll find....

...that the GOP was fixing the vote even then. By 2000, electronic voting was all over the place, and easily controllable by someone or some group that knew what they were doing.

Additionally, what happened in Florida was not an isolated event. If you looked at the news stories that came out immediately following the 2000 election, you'll find that voting abuses took place all over the country, but primarily in the South as far as I can tell. What tipped it all off was when the media-funded group that used to do the exit polling was told to take a hike WHILE THE 2000 VOTING WAS STILL IN PROCESS.

In 2002, polling leading up to the last couple of days had Democrats leading in certain key areas by as much as 10%. When they woke up the day after the elections ALMOST EVERY DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE IN THOSE SAME KEY AREAS HAD LOST BY AT LEAST 5% POINTS. Of course, it really didn't help when Wellstone was killed.

So yes, the GOP gained control of the Legislative and Executive Branches by fixing the vote for the last three elections. Is it possible that the same system caused the GOP to gain some many state governor seats?

Now let's address the Judiciary Branch. The Conservatives gained control over this branch of the government quite some time ago. This didn't just magically happen during Clinton's presidency, it had been going on since Nixon was president.

[lancdem]

36. They did it when they shut the govt. down

and with impeachment, which led to them losing seats in 1998. The Dems' disastrous showing in the 1994 midterms was the result of a lot of factors coalescing at the worst possible time.

[comsymp]

39. Newt would probably beg to differ

Remember the '98 elections, which came on the heels of their attempted coup? Dems gained 5 House seats (only one other time since the Civil War that the P's party gained in the midterms. Newt got the boot and Livingston was right behind him.

There actually has been no change in the SCOTUS- arguably, as a result of the same R overreaching. Two or 3 Justices had been expected to retire but, it could be argued, their 2000 hijinx made it politically untenable for them to do so. This could be construed as a backfire.

2000- Dems picked up 2 in the House, 4 in the Senate, and a Governorship. Needless to say, the Dem candidate for Prez also won.

2001 was a pretty good year- other than NYC, virtually everything broke Dem.

Daschle and Rose Garden Gep, it could be argued, blew 2002 and took a hit of 2 Senate seats, including Wellstone's, and what- 5-6 House seats?

[KansDem]

16. I swear, the more I see of Republicans and hear them speak...

...the more inclined I am to spank them and send them to bed without supper. :mad:

[leetrisck]

19. bush did more damage & got more people

killed in 8 months than Clinton could ever have done. bush was a lazy ass (& is) uninformed "whatever" that didn't give a hoot about this country and still doesn't.

[hatrack]

22. When all seems lost, when all else fails, there's always . . .

CLENIS!

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. Well maybe if the repug controlled Congress

had let Clinton due his job, instead of forcing him to defend himself in endless investigations, Clinton might have actually caught or killed Osama before he left office.

In the meantime, W has had 3 years, with the full support of the military and Congress and he still can't find Osama. Not to mention, the fact, that 9-11 happened on his watch and even then, he froze like a deer in the headlights.

[Solly Mack]

25. we knew they would

from the moment it happened.

[mourningdove92]

26. Here is our answer regarding why the GOP has gone on the

offensive so strongly.

U.S. Sept. 11 panel lists missed opportunities - Post
The newspaper quoted the official as saying six of the missed opportunities came during the Bush administration and four during the Clinton years.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/040721/137/2f2oz.html

[drscm]

27. Yup! Clinton kept us safe 8 years. *Bush couldn't even manage 8 mos. eom

eom

[thecrow]

44. kick

[Jane Austin]

28. SHOCK!!

The funny thing about that headline is that it could have been from any time from Jan 1993 until today.

[fob]

30. Or conversely, the report covers 2 years of a Dem congress,

and 8 years of a Repuke congress! Good job pointing the blame at yourselves dumbasses.

Repuke Logic

1980's - good times - credit to raygun
1980's - bad times - blame President Carter and Dem Congress
1990's - good times - credit to raygun and repuke congress
1990's - bad times - since there weren't any real heavy duty ones, make up a shitload of contrivances and blame on President Clinton
2000 to date - good times - again since there really hasn't been any of ANY stature, they massage the numbers and make shit up and credit it to BOTH bush* and the repuke congress
2000 to date - bad times - Blame goes to President Clinton

Funny how that works, huh.

[The_Casual_Observer]

32. political football

chimp is sunk. Anymore it is a constant unrelenting investigation or commission regarding some horrible disaster that has happened since the squatter started squatting. These investigations will be going on for the next 20 years.

[opihimoimoi]

35. The Perect Pubs never take a hit(blame).. They always manage to

blame others....

Bush got the Hart Rudman report and ReJected the damn thing...

aaaaaaathen, he got the Aug warnings and failed to warn the agencies...and us too.

Bush is the Failure, not anyone else....l

They trying to lie their way out.... no dice...

[thecrow]

38. kick for the morning crowd

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

40. This American citizen blames the RW of the Republican Party, the political

home of the original Operation PAPERCLIP Nazis, neo-nazis and fascists du jour that have had a sinister influence and corrupting effect within our entire national security community-NAZIS were welcome in the Republican Party!:nuke:

The passage of The National Security Act of 1947 was the original "intelligence failure" because it institutionalized the Nazi influence in US political process. The Nazis US political home was in the Republican Party:grr:

Russ Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/political-science/fascism/bellant/bellant.pt1

Ratlines: The CIA and the Nazis
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/ratlines.htm

[Drifter]

41. Missed Opportunities ...

Here are the numbers I heard regarding the opportunities to prevent 9/11

Clinton - 4 in 8 Years
Bush - 6 in 8 Months

Lets not forget that Clinton was hounded for 8 years. Perhaps if HE were given the benefit of the doubt (like we did with AWOL), his effort to stem terrorism would have been better. Nope, he was wagging the dog.

Cheers
Drifter

[bobthedrummer]

42. President Clinton's administration prosecuted Nazis

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/hr071498/holtzman.html

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/hr071498/maloney.html

President Clinton acknowledged and apologized for Cold War collateral damage right here in America. The Clinton administration opened the Office of Human Radiation Experimentation, which was largely carried on by PAPERCLIP Nazi scientists and doctors in America.
http://tis.eh.doe.gov/ohre/index.html

IN AMERICA, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE POLITICAL HOME OF REAL NAZIS.

[shawn703]

43. So if both administrationsmade mistakes

Let's say an equal number, since the report says equal blame should fall on both administrations. If each administration made eight mistakes, but Clinton's eight mistakes came over eight years while Bush's came over eight months, how do Hastert and DeLay think they can polish this turd to Republican benefit?

[Norquist Nemesis]

45. If one extrapolates the 10 chances

Clinton 4/10 over 96 months vs. Bush 6/10 over 8 months, there's no doubt who was the incompetent leader.