Rachel Maddow's Interview w/ Tom Ridge - PART ONE

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 10:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oykPN0bzu30   Posted on YouTube: September 02, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 02, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 2060

 
MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show - 1 Sep. 2009: Rachel interviews former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on politicizing terror threat level during the Bush Administration. Maddow clearly has no patience with Ridge pulling out the "faulty intelligence was responsible for Iraq fiasco" crap and his backpedaling.

INCREDIBLE FINAL PART OF INTERVIEW: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=363291&mesg_id=363291

[nolabear]

1. Rachel is becoming one of the best if not the best

interviewers of our time. I don't know how much Ridge's walkback on HS's response to 9/11 and its politics surprised her, but she gave him time and respect and still pointed out again and again how what he was saying made no sense and was incongruent with his stated opinion. I was proud as heck of her.

[Turborama]

2. I concur & can see many journalism awards coming her way n/t

[Turborama]

3. K&R Thanks for posting, Rachel never ceases to impress

Rachel deserves a lot more viewers than she gets, hopefully her ratings are going to start snowballing when YouTube videos like this gain traction.

[burning rain]

4. Ridge proved quite the weasel in his nice guy moderate Republican way.

When asked about the passage in his book where he describes wondering whether something else was afoot, than concern for the nation's security, when Ashcroft and Rumsfeld pushed for a increase in the terror alert level the weekend before the 2004 election, he walked it back to say that he'd wondered at the time, but had since learned that politics had nothing to do with it--and indeed politics never had anything to do with the terror level being raised or lowered. He also fell back on the argument that even with full hindsight that there were no WMD or 9/11 connection, it was worth invading Iraq so as to build democracy there. Remember, kids: nice guy moderate Republicans can be the most insidious ones of all.

[Overseas]

5. K&R -- Go Rachel !! /eom

[TheEuclideanOne]

6. Is the system really designed to work without Influence? Fuck You, Tom!!!

If the system is designed to work perfectly and not influenced by anything other than National security, then don't put a passage on the inside cover of the book that says that it was influenced by politics! So, you just showed that you created a system that can not be tampered with by any single person, not even the president, but then say that everybody involved was corrupt and decided collectively to tamper with it and raise the threat level to get Bush re-elected.

When you write a book saying that it was, do not act surprised if people question you on it. I repeat, it is on the INSIDE COVER OF THE FUCKING BOOK!!!! Not your words? I call Bullshit. Still, Rachel did go inside the book and you essentially say the same thing. Let me guess, you realized "something different" between the time the book was written and the time of the interview circuit?

The bottom line is: You are an unethical, weaselly pussy whod did not do the right thing where you were in a position to. You are now backpeddling big time now that people are calling you on it. In fact, the only time that you admitted to your cover up was when you were in a position to profit financially on it from your book. What does that say about you as a person. All respect is lost here, partially from what you did and partially from the weaselly way you handle it in these interviews.