His message that the Bush administration did nothing to go after Osama before 9/11 — which, from the record is clear enough — apparently pierced even the Washington press corps’ Republican-spun brains today. They asked Bush about it at a press conference. He’s not going to finger point, he says. Good thing, because he’d have to point at himself.
Bush also has been forced to release his own administration’s intelligence assessment that terrorism has spread thanks to his Iraq adventure.
The right can scream about Clinton’s demeanor all it wants. He tried to take Osama out and failed (and was ridiculed by Republicans at the time for trying). Bush did nothing. World terrorism has increased since Bush’s war. If it took a Clinton display of temper to get that message across, maybe we need more of them. At a minimum, his outburst may have reversed the spin the Bush administration had put in motion, supported by accomplices at ABC and elsewhere, that somehow we have only Clinton to blame for thousands dead, squandered treasure and a pariah’s reputation throughout the world.
UPDATE: A P.O.’ed president has released key parts of the intelligence report. How dare American voters have the facts to judge this administration and the congressmen who toadied to it? Here are excerpts. (But everybody in the U.S. is trying to get it right now.