Bad Dog

The transcript doesn't quite do the video justice.

CLINTON: No, no. I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill [bin Laden].

The CIA, which was run by George Tenet, that President Bush gave the Medal of Freedom to, he said, He did a good job setting up all these counterterrorism things.

The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came there.

Now, if you want to criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this: After the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.

But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11.

The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would’ve had to send a few hundred Special Forces in in helicopters and refuel at night.

Even the 9/11 Commission didn’t do that. Now, the 9/11 Commission was a political document, too. All I’m asking is, anybody who wants to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book.

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough, sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn’t get him.

WALLACE: Right.

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried.

So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted.

So you did Fox’s bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me. What I want to know is…

WALLACE: Well, wait a minute, sir.

CLINTON: No, wait. No, no…

WALLACE: I want to ask a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question, but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of.

I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole?

I want to know how many you asked, Why did you fire Dick Clarke?

I want to know how many people you asked…

Obviously, Clinton knew what he was getting into, giving an interview to Faux News. He knew he would get sandbagged in the interview, and he's clearly still pissed about the stupid ABC Path to 9/11 crapumentary, as he well should be. So he simply got the drop on them, beat them at their own game. Pretty damned sweet, really. Bush could never put anything nearly so comprehensive together ahead of time, just because of the ability required to extemporize for starters.

Compare and contrast Clenis' evisceration of that simpering little shit Chrissie Wallace with Bush's recent bouts with the three network sock puppets. The only one that challenged Himself enough to get him pissy was Matt Lauer, and Bush started crowding Lauer as he launched into the millionth refrain of Let's All Drink From The Glorious Cup Of Freedomocracy™. No one's buying that tune anymore, except the people who emotionally invested in it way too much.

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of all this is the reaction of the usual gastropods on the right. You can set your watch by them.

Can anyone say, "the buck stops here?"

downtownlad, how many people were killed in a terrorist attack just before Clinton had to make that huge ex-Presidential response to Chris Wallace? Tu quoque is really, really unattractive as an attempt at argument, don't you think?

I've said before that in 1992 I perceived Clinton as a coward in most all (probably all) the important areas. He also appears to embody most of the worst of (my) Boomer Generation proclivities. For instance, love me for who I am not what I do.

The worst part is that we'll undoubtedly have to put up with similar stuff from Clinton for the next 30 years or so and we may even (shudder) begin to long for the good old days when Jimmy Clinton [sic] was the worst example of an ex-Pres.

This is borderline retarded, in terms of cognitive skills and reading comprehension. Clinton readily admitted that he "tried and failed" to kill bin Laden. And I distinctly recall that when he did so, when he launched missiles into Sudan and Afghanistan, the Serious Thinkers were thumbing their dicks, talking about the tail wagging the dog and how Clinton's tie was a signal to Monica.

I too found Clinton's incessant triangulations exasperating over the years, but one would think that these douchebags might at least be intellectually responsible enough to admit that Clinton found ways to give them what they wanted. Welfare reform and fiscal responsibility, and not one of these gutless cocksuckers has ever had the balls to just say, "Well, he did do that, anyway." No, it's cheap shots at how he looks (as if Ann Althouse was Heidi Fucking Klum or something) -- the guy is 60 years old and not all that far past a life-threatening heart problem and surgery.

I can only imagine what sort of ex-preznit Junior will be; no doubt a rainmaker for the scum-sucking defense-contractor class. Once a grifter, always a grifter. I honestly can't imagine him just doing something purely altruistic. But you know, let's shit on Jimmy Carter, an 80-year-old man who still goes all out to help low-income families and homeless people. What a terrible example he sets. Fuck these people.

Clinton is painfully self-aware and tiresomely self-conscious of his legacy, and he may indeed be trying to burnish it a little here. But so what? This is bigger than his legacy, and he knows that too. By walking into the poodles' den, pimp-slapping Wallace and showing these putrid little ankle-biters for what they really are, Clinton performed two very valuable services.

One, he set the record straight. Disney's piece o' crap and the attendant publicity generated a lot of needless inflammatory bullshit, and we all know it. This administration was never going to -- will never -- bother to correct such things, or even illuminate them with the free flow of archived information. They have plenty to hide, and they've made sure that we won't be able to know the truth till long after they're shoveling shit in hell. So it was an opportunity for Clinton not only to rebut the lies that had been festering in the public discourse, but to flesh out the whole story, and acknowledge that when it comes to playing the blame game, it's a big gameboard with a lot of players.

Maybe even more important is that Clinton took it upon himself to set the tone and terms for Democrats to start confronting this shit. He understands more than anyone else in his party that, once you get past red-state/blue-state tropes, people are voting with their guts, and the Republicans' mastery of visceral imagery has been winning for them. This does not mean adopting the inchoate fabulism that occupies the scream-radio shows, or the pathetic, mindless ranting of the used-up skanks peddling unreadable, plagiarized books. But it does recognize that informed, channeled anger can be quite useful and productive; it can illuminate and inspire, and it can slap down the yapping mutts that needed a good swift kick in the ass long ago.