Meanwhile, Rush Gets Away With It

So, tell me why nobody is jumping all over Rush Limbaugh for implying that BushCo is keeping Osama bin Laden under wraps until just before the 2004 elections:

"I have no basis," OxyContin Man wrote on December 5th, "for my theory on why the White House is playing down these ties between Saddam and 9/11, but I'd say this: beware of an October surprise. I think that by campaign time next year, the Bush administration may unveil a whole lot of stuff that we've learned, like WMDs and maybe the link between Osama and Saddam and maybe where both Saddam and Osama are."

But then, Rush and his kind get a free pass on everything, don't they?

Meanwhile, Rush Gets Away With It 3:42:41 PM
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Who Says Bush Is Hiding Osama?

Jim McDermott isn't alone in his implied assessment of Osama's whereabouts. Bear in mind that WorldNetDaily isn't much lower than Fox News on the rabid-right-wing scale, but this is a story worth noting. With all due respect to the congressman from Washington, the subject is somebody with a lot more political capital and clout than McDermott:

Albright thinks Bush hiding bin Laden. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Fox News Channel analyst Morton Kondracke yesterday she suspects President Bush knows the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and is simply waiting for the most politically expedient moment to announce his capture. Kondracke made the announcement about what Albright told him backstage before an appearance on another Fox show on "Special Report With Brit Hume." ... "She was not smiling when she said this," offered Kondracke, who believes Albright is serious about the conspiracy theory. ... [WorldNetDaily, December 17, 2003]

You shouldn't care if Albright served under Clinton; when a former U.S. Secretary of State goes out on a limb like that, there's a reason.

And frankly, I have no love for Albright; I mean, come on -- this is the woman who, when asked by Lesley Stahl if sanctions on Iraq resulting in the deaths of some half a million children was worth it, replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it." That doesn't exactly make her my prime pick for one of the highest offices in U.S. government -- but she is someone who knows where the bodies are buried.

Still, Madame Secretary has since turned right around to cover her butt:

Albright: Bin Laden Comments Were 'Tongue-in-Cheek'. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insisted Wednesday that she was just kidding when she wondered aloud whether the Bush administration is holding Usama bin Laden captive, waiting to break him out at the best political moment. It was a "tongue-in-cheek comment and was not intended in any other way," Albright told Fox News. But witnesses to Albright's comment said the ambassador did not appear to be joking Tuesday when she suggested President Bush may reveal bin Laden's capture as an "October surprise" before next November's presidential election. Albright was in the Fox News studio's green room waiting to appear on an evening program when she made the remark. "She said, 'Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Usama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?'" said Fox News analyst and Roll Call executive editor Mort Kondracke. "She was not smiling." Two makeup artists who prep the guests before their appearances also reported that Albright did not ask her question in a joking manner. ... [Fox News, December 17, 2003]

Either way, whether Albright was kidding or not, the idea is now out there.

And let's be honest, folks: McDermott and Albright aren't the only two people on the planet entertaining the very same thought.

Pakistan MP and former Minister of Information Mushahid Hussain has a different take, worth considering. The spread of the idea that Bush will pull Osama out of a hat (or a spider-hole) just before the 2004 elections may be less the product of fertile imaginations on the Left, and more a result of wishful thinking by the Right:

Will an 'October Surprise' bail out Bush?. A recent visit to Washington underlined an interesting aspect of American dependence on Pakistan on what could be a decisive element in the "war on terror" with a direct linkage to the political fortunes of President George Bush given the upcoming Presidential Elections in November 2004. As Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrate, the war on terror has become an unwinnable war without end. In fact, an authoritative insider in the American Establishment went so far as to confess that "American conspiracy theorists are now banking on an "October Surprise" to politically bail out Bush in the November 2004 Presidential Elections." The expectation of these American conspiracy theorists regarding the October Surprise is that somehow, with help from his Pakistani partners, in October 2004, just a few weeks before the elections, Bush will get a timely "gift" in the form of Osama bin Laden finally getting nabbed, thereby clinching his re-election and, perhaps, reinforcing the connection with Pakistan. The interesting part of this mindset is that, as the United States becomes deeply embroiled in affairs of the Muslim world and in invading and occupying countries in the old colonial style, Americans, like Muslims, have started banking on miracles and believing in conspiracy theories. ... [Mushahid Hussain, Gulf News, December 17, 2003]

Mushahid Hussain doesn't seem to be chiding anti-Bush "conspiracy theorists" so much as he is Bush supporters praying for a miracle.

That the Osama "conspiracy theories" may be coming inadvertently from the Right instead of blatantly from the Left isn't so far-fetched. You and I may scoff at the idea of BushCo producing Osama at the eleventh hour simply because (regardless of whether they know where he is, or even have him in custody already), it would be such a ridiculously obvious thing to do.

But you have to ask: Has any of BushCo's uncannily-timed stunts failed yet to wow the American public? Everything Bush does is ridiculously obvious, and, bolstered by the public's willingness to let him get away with cheap parlor tricks again and again, his handlers don't even care how amateurish his not-so-sleight-of-hand appears. They stage the show, you buy a ticket, and they expect you to give the production a glowing review to all your friends the next day -- despite the crummy acting, shoddy direction, creaky sets, and a script full of plot holes.

Who Says Bush Is Hiding Osama? 3:32:25 PM
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Now That Georgie's Had His Fun...

Wes Clark agrees: It's time to end all this WMD silliness and get down to finding the real culprit behind 9/11:

Clark Says It's Time to Find Bin Laden. Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said Tuesday that it is time to end the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and use the intelligence agents and U.S. troops there to find Osama bin Laden instead. President Bush cited Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons stockpile as a reason for going to war in Iraq, but none have been found. Clark, a retired Army general who led the NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo, has argued that bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, posed a bigger threat to the United States than the former Iraqi leader. Clark said Tuesday that he welcomed the recent capture of Saddam, but reiterated his view that the administration's focus should be on bin Laden. "We didn't have to take the detour in Iraq," Clark said at Logan International Airport, where he arrived after two days of closed testimony in the Netherlands at the war crimes trial of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. "There's no evidence to indicate there was an imminent threat there to the United States. But having gone in there, we had to succeed," he said. Clark said the Iraq war "wasn't the smart move to make at the time" because it did not address the problem of Sept. 11. "It's time to pull the intelligence folks and the special forces that are looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq off that mission to go after the remaining insurgents in Iraq and Osama bin Laden," he said. [Associated Press, December 17, 2003]

Now That Georgie's Had His Fun... 3:20:40 PM
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Of Course They'll Find Osama

Bin Laden will be caught, White House vows. Four days after Saddam Hussein's capture, the White House vowed Tuesday to find another most-wanted fugitive -- terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We're continuing to pursue other leaders within that al Qaeda terrorist network, including Osama bin Laden. I think he can fully expect that he will be brought to justice by this administration," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. ... [CNN, December 17, 2003]

Hey, Scotty! Are you sure you didn't mean to say, "he will be brought to justice by the end of next summer?" (Can you say "October surprise"?)

Aw, just joshin' ya, Scotty, ya Big Giant Head, you!


Related article:

Analysts See Bigger Stock Rally If Bin Laden Found. The capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gave an initial boost to stock markets worldwide on Monday, leading some analysts to believe that a bigger rally would occur if the United States reels in Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. ... [Vivian Chu, Reuters, December 15, 2003]

Of Course They'll Find Osama 2:43:21 PM
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