Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Cassandra Stares Slack Jawed Say What? He Wasn't? Let's put aside for a moment what most of the White House mugger-flackers are saying about Richard Clarke: "If Al Qaeda was being overlooked,  the one to blame was Clarke. After all, he was the Anti-Terrorism Czar." Which would be a slightly more persuasive argument if Cheney wasn't saying, at the very same time, that Mr Clarke "was out of the loop." (Can't they get their character attacks straight?) BUT THAT'S NOT THE BIG STORY OF THE DAY! Nope. Everybody missed the big story, so here it is, right from Scott McClellan's daily press briefing: Q: Scott, this morning, you said the President didn't recall the conversation in the Situation Room on September 12th that Mr. Clarke said he had, where the President asked Dick Clarke three times to pursue links between 9/11 and Iraq.  And you said he doesn't -- I had two questions. So did the President tell you or somebody in the White House over the weekend, he doesn't recall? MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I talked to him. He doesn't recall that conversation or meeting. Q: And that was -- he said it this morning, or this weekend? When did he say that? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this weekend and this morning, yes. Q: Okay. And secondly, Clarke now says that he has three eyewitnesses, and he repeated it again this morning, and he named them -- to the conversation. MR. McCLELLAN: Let's just step backwards -- regardless, regardless, put that aside. There's no record of the President being in the Situation Room on that day that it was alleged to have happened, on the day of September the 12th. When the President is in the Situation Room, we keep track of that. But put all that aside, let's go to the heart of the matter. This was supposedly the day after the September 11th attacks. And, of course, you want to look at all possibilities of who might be responsible. It would be irresponsible not to consider all responsibilities. Did you see it as it flashed by? Here it is again in slo-mo "MR. McCLELLAN: Let's just step backwards -- regardless, regardless, put that aside. There's no record of the President being in the Situation Room on that day that it was alleged to have happened, on the day of September the 12th." The Situation Room of the White House is focal point of all the heavy duty military and intelligence action. (Hell, you've watched the West Wing.) And on the day after 9/11, Bush didn't go down there once! HUH? Cassandra is brought to you by Real Life   Now it's gonna get interesting. 1:21:59 AM    comment []