Podhoretz on Clarke

Podhoretz on Clarke

The final bit from Joh Podhoretz' column on Dick Clarke.

Good stuff.

DICK'S TALL TALE

They were not Bush's fault, and they were not caused by his inattention. Nor were they Clinton's fault. They were the fault of Osama bin Laden, who attacked and killed 3,000 Americans and would happily have seen that number read 30,000 or 50,000.

We need to remember this, and we are in danger of forgetting it in the raging partisan kerfuffle.

In the months after 9/11, the Bush administration refused - absolutely refused - to try to blame the attacks on the Clinton administration's failure of vision. The nation needed to be united in its determination and could not afford to surrender to finger-pointing.

Well, guess what? The Clinton administration's senior foreign-policy officials will be appearing this week before the 9/11 commission - to do to the Bush administration exactly what the Bush administration refused to do to them.

"It is essential that we prevent further attacks, and that we protect the Constitution," Clarke writes, "against all enemies." It is clear from the context of this sentence that he includes George W. Bush among the enemies along with Osama bin Laden.

Is this really a sentiment that mainstream Democrats want to support and echo?