Clarke

The past few days have seen the most intensive spin effort put forth by the OTB2 administration since they were making up reasons to go to war. The target this time is Richard Clarke instead of Saddam Hussein. While I think that Clarke is an honest man who is brave to place himself in the line of fire (did you hear him actually apologize to the victims of 9-11?), I think that there are important parallels between Hussein and Clarke. Before he wrote his book, Clarke got along with Rumsfeld - just like Saddam used to. Furthermore, both Clarke and (I presume) Hussein thought that America should focus its attention on pursuing Al Qaeda rather than getting distracted by Iraq.

It really is bizarre to see the ferocity with which they are going after Clarke. They claim he was out of the loop, which, if true, proves his point. If your head of counter-terrorism is out of the loop, perhaps you're not focused on terrorism. They are releasing documents and acting like they significantly contradict what he is saying now, when they really don't. They even dug up his resignation letter and tried to act like his professionalism in resigning means that he was a happy employee. They trotted the Vice-President out for an interview on Limbaugh - fearing that they are losing even that base of support.

The only sad part about this incredible collapse of the Bush administration is that watching OTB2 bleed may distract the country from paying attention to Kerry as he describes his positive domestic and foreign policies to help our country get back on the right path.