The Right State

While on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Bill Clinton flatly stated that the Bush administration did nothing for eight months before the 9/11 attacks.  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has come out forcefully and angrily against charges made by the former President.

“The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn’t do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11 commission understood that,” Rice said during a wide-ranging meeting with Post editors and reporters.

“What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” Rice added.

The secretary of state also sharply disputed Clinton’s claim that he “left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy” for the incoming Bush team during the presidential transition in 2001.

“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda,” Rice responded during the hourlong session.

Her strong rebuttal was the Bush administration’s first response to Clinton’s headline-grabbing interview on Fox on Sunday in which he launched into an over-the-top defense of his handling of terrorism - wagging his finger in the air, leaning forward in his chair and getting red-faced, and even attacking Wallace for improper questioning.

Rice pointed out that the administration did all it could to defend the country against terrorist attacks citing the 9/11 Commission Report as a reference.

“I would just suggest that you go back and read the 9/11 commission report on the efforts of the Bush administration in the eight months - things like working to get an armed Predator [drone] that actually turned out to be extraordinarily important,” Rice added.

Bill Clinton said that he did not think attacking President Bush was helpful, but then he went on to attack the President’s demotion of Terrorist Czar Richard Clarke as an example how Bush was not serious about terrorism.  Rice’s response set the record straight.

She also said Clinton’s claims that Richard Clarke - the White House anti-terror guru hyped by Clinton as the country’s “best guy” - had been demoted by Bush were bogus.

“Richard Clarke was the counterterrorism czar when 9/11 happened. And he left when he did not become deputy director of homeland security, some several months later,” she said.

In looking at these two interviews, there is a marked contrast between them.  Bill Clinton reacted angrily at the mere suggestion that he did not do enough to capture or kill Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks.  Amidst much finger pointing and he accused Fox News of kowtowing to conservatives.  He accused Chris Wallace of asking unfair questions.  And over and over again he said, “I tried.”  Over and over again he stated he had plans drawn up to attack and kill bin Laden.  Of this Michelle Malkin says, He doth protest too much.

Condoleezza Rice gave specifics in her responses citing the increased use of Predator drones.  One of the more interesting contrasts between the two interviews is the books cited by both sides.  Secretary Rice cited the final 9/11 Commission Report while Clinton cited Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, which is nothing but a political hit book.

In comparing the two interviews, one glaring fact stands out.  Bill Clinton is desperately trying to protect what little positive remains of his failed legacy.

Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters

Tags: Terrorism, President Bush, Politics //