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September 25, 2006 [LINK / comment]
Clinton loses his cool on FOX
If you ask me, Bill Clinton's furious, hot-headed retort to Chris Wallace during a Fox News interview about his administration's lapses in dealing with terrorism suggests a guilty conscience. He really flew off the handle, shrilly blaming neoconservatives for not stopping Osama bin Laden. In contrast, "At least I tried." Sheesh. That aggressive finger-wagging and hints of a "vast right-wing conspiracy," just like 1998 all over again! The questions put by Wallace were perfectly reasonable, and could have been answered fairly convincingly without much loss of face by Clinton, but he simply could not stand to share any of the blame for 9/11. Tony Snow put it succinctly (see foxnews.com): "He retorts, you decide." Clearly, the former president doth protest too much. The harder he strains to magnify his legacy, the smaller he shrinks in stature. The Washington Post reports that Clinton was angry because he thought he was going to be asked about his global climate proposals. Perhaps. Personally, I prefer to minimize the role of politics in debates over who failed the most in dealing with the threat of Al Qaeda. As I wrote on April 19, 2005,
To me, it's fairly obvious that both President Bush ("W") and President Clinton could have been more alert to the threat of terrorism, and even more obvious that partisan bickering over which of the two leaders did a better or worse job in that regard is not only pointless, but serves to divide us further, which is exactly what our enemies want.
Clinton's strident self-justification not only backfired, it unnecessarily stoked partisan animosity, just when we should be striving for national unity.
Bush compromises on "torture"
Last week's agreement between President Bush and the "rebellious" moderate Republican senators (Warner, McCain, Graham, and Chaffee) was a rare moment of common sense prevailing in Washington. Of course most Americans want our government to abide by the Geneva Convention to the maximum extent possible, but most of us do not want to subject our judicial processes to foreign oversight. Bush has pushed his discretionary executive powers a bit too far on more than one occasion, and it was entirely proper and necessary for the U.S. Senate to play its constitutional role in checking executive power. Fortunately, leaders on both side of Pennsylvania realized that we are all on the same side in this war, so there had to be some reasonable middle ground to satsify the concerns of both security and justice. Of course, Washingtonians tried to spin the agreement to make one side or the other look better, but as Ann Althouse (via Instapundit) warns, we shouldn't take such explanations at face value. So does it really matter which side compomised more? Not to me.
Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 26 Sep 2006, 12: 13 AM
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Category archives:
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This (or that) year's
blog highlights
January 7, 2006 ~ DeLay gives up majority leader post
January 12, 2006 ~ Alito withstands Dems' "torture"
January 16, 2006 ~ Michelle Bachelet wins in Chile
January 19, 2006 ~ Views on Iran's nuclear ambitions
January 24, 2006 ~ Fallout from Canada's election
January 31, 2006 ~ Second (& third) thoughts on Iran
February 1, 2006 ~ The State of the Union, 2006
February 8, 2006 ~ D.C. Council votes "yes," but...
February 18, 2006 ~ Checks and balances in wartime
February 22, 2006 ~
Neocons & Neolibs: chastened alike
February 28, 2006 ~
The Dubai Ports World uproar
March 14, 2006 ~ New D.C. baseball stadium unveiled
March 24, 2006 ~ In the footsteps of France?
April 7, 2006 ~ Immigration compromise fails
May 16, 2006 ~ Bush militarizes Mexican border
June 6, 2006 ~ Alan Garcia triumphs, once again
June 9, 2006 ~
Zarqawi: The death of a terrorist
July 3, 2006 ~
Election in Mexico: too close to call
July 5, 2006 ~ North Korea goes ballistic
July 28, 2006 ~ Garcia prepares to lead Peru, again
August 4, 2006 ~ Israel invades Hezbolland
September 6, 2006 ~ "Crunchy conservatives": for real?
September 25, 2006 ~ Nationalists thwart conservation
October 3, 2006 ~ Nationals: Year in review
October 29, 2006 ~ Virginia's marriage amendment
November 7, 2006 ~ The people render their verdict
November 8, 2006 ~ Republicans lose big time
November 9, 2006 ~ Allen concedes / Election post-mortem
November 13, 2006 ~ Toward consensus on Iraq?
December 1, 2006 ~ Realism and our goals in Iraq
December 6, 2006 ~ Latin America & U.S. trade policy
December 8, 2006 ~ Iraq Study Group reports
December 22, 2006 ~ Yuletide political roundup
Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.
Explanation
The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:
- Wild birds (LAST)
- War
- Science & Technology
- Politics
- Latin America
- Culture & Travel
- Canaries ("Home birds")
- Baseball (FIRST)
Also see: My blog practices.
Blog errata (Nobody's perfect.)