| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
02 Apr 2004 01:33:36 PM |
| Object: |
OT: 'The Wizard of Oz Letter' |
'The Wizard of Oz Letter'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653858/
Bush pulls back the curtain on who really runs the White House
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 1:50 p.m. ET April 02, 2004
April 2 - This was the week the curtain got pulled back on the Bush
presidency. In exchange for allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify under
oath, President Bush gets to bring along his vice president when he
appears privately before the commission.
Eleanor Clift
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0310111100.188d2eca%40posting.google.com
Bush mafia
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Bush%20mafia&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&lr=&num=100&hl=en
Cheney
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0401240240.6c914c81%40posting.google.com
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: 'The Wizard of Oz Letter' |
03 Apr 2004 01:40:45 PM |
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On 2 Apr 2004 11:33:36 -0800, (maff), Message ID:
<18510aff.0404021133.6f40d1a4@posting.google.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
'The Wizard of Oz Letter'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653858/
Bush pulls back the curtain on who really runs the White House
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 1:50 p.m. ET April 02, 2004
April 2 - This was the week the curtain got pulled back on the Bush
presidency. In exchange for allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify under
oath, President Bush gets to bring along his vice president when he
appears privately before the commission.
A top Republican strategist dubbed the legal document striking the
unusual deal “the Wizard of Oz letter” because it strips away the myth
that Bush is in charge. Until now, it’s been all speculation about Vice
President Cheney’s influence. With the revelation of the tandem
testimony, nobody with a straight face can deny Cheney is a co-president
or worse, the puppeteer who pulls Bush’s strings.
Aside from being fodder for the late-night comics, the arrangement
confirms Bush’s inability to articulate anything without a script--or a
tutor by his side. There’s a reason lawyers don’t take testimony in
groups. The whole idea is to get individual recollections and then
compare stories to uncover contradictions. Try thinking about it this
way: can anyone imagine Bush’s father in a similar situation bringing
his vice president? (For those who need a refresher course, the elder
Bush was a rocket scientist compared to his son, and the vice president
was Dan Quayle.)
Even President Reagan testified alone on the Iran-contra scandal. He
didn’t insist on having Vice President Bush sit beside him. Of course,
Reagan couldn’t remember much of anything. His faculties were failing as
a result of Alzheimer’s disease, which he later revealed. Still, Reagan
permitted his testimony to be videotaped.
This is a defining moment in the Bush presidency because it reveals
weakness at the top.
What Cheney and the tight circle around Bush are protecting is the myth
they have created since 9/11 of a war president astride the world stage.
Anybody who punctures that imagery is destroyed. Richard Clarke is only
the latest in a series of insiders who have pulled back the curtain. At
the center is an incurious president who is so inarticulate that he
can’t be left on his own to make a sustained argument on behalf of his
policies without falling back on rehearsed talking points and sound
bites.
The Democrats must be greatly tempted to lampoon Bush, but they should
leave that to Jay Leno and Jon Stewart. John Kerry is smart to stay out
of the way when it comes to the 9/11 commission. The Bush strategy is to
muddy the picture, castigate Clarke as a disgruntled partisan, and
portray his criticisms as nothing but politics. But Clarke’s book is
flying off the shelves, and his revelations will be followed later this
month by a sequel to “Bush at War” from Bob Woodward of Watergate fame,
which the White House is nervously anticipating.
Also due by the end of April is a memoir/expose by Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, who angered the administration last year when he went public
with his finding that Iraq had not sought uranium from Africa. Wilson’s
wife was then exposed as a CIA operative by columnist Robert Novak, who
was acting on information provided by the administration. Wilson’s book
is titled, “The Politics of Truth.” It could be subtitled: “What I
Didn’t Find in Africa.”
Wilson praises Clarke for how he’s handling himself in the media
spotlight. “He’s a ferocious bureaucrat,” says Wilson, “and I mean that
in the positive sense of the term. He learned to operate in that
environment.” When 9/11 commissioner Jim Thompson confronted Clarke on
the gap between what he is saying now and the rosy briefings he gave
while working the White House, Clarke explained that was politics.
Wilson says an effective response would have been to point out to the
many lawyers on the 9/11 commission that White House aides are paid to
make the case for the president just as lawyers make the case for their
client. “If you can’t abide it, then you step away,” says Wilson.
“Clarke was in it for the long haul, to roll back Al Qaeda.”
Clarke said under oath that he would not accept a job with the Kerry
campaign, and he asked an activist group (MoveOn.org) to stop using his
voice on an ad bashing Bush. What Clarke said has been said before, that
the Bush administration was slow to recognize the terrorist threat
before 9/11 and that going to war in Iraq was unnecessary and has made
us less safe. The difference is who’s saying it. Clark is not some
Washington time-server. He’s the ultimate serious guy who knows what
he’s doing and cares passionately about countering terrorism. He was
Bush’s crisis manager on 9/11, the man who sat in the chair in the
Situation Room while other top aides fled to safety.
The person whose reputation got hurt the most during the Clarke
counterattack was Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who went to the
Senate floor to threaten Clarke with perjury. It was crude character
assassination, and it opened the door for Democrats to make the same
accusation against Condoleezza Rice, who has made more conflicting
statements than Clarke. The danger is not that Rice might actually be
prosecuted, but the charge is political mud, and it might stick.
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: OT: 'The Wizard of Oz Letter' |
03 Apr 2004 05:44:07 PM |
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On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 11:33:36 -0800 in episode
<18510aff.0404021133.6f40d1a4@posting.google.com> we saw our hero
maff91@yahoo.com (maff):
'The Wizard of Oz Letter'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653858/
Bush pulls back the curtain on who really runs the White House
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 1:50 p.m. ET April 02, 2004
April 2 - This was the week the curtain got pulled back on the Bush
presidency. In exchange for allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify under
oath, President Bush gets to bring along his vice president when he
appears privately before the commission.
What's this about President Cheney bringing along his Vice President?
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism,
because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
- Mussolini
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: 'The Wizard of Oz Letter' |
04 Apr 2004 03:10:47 PM |
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On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 17:44:07 -0600, "Mark K. Bilbo" <y@hoo.com-amikchi>,
Message ID: <pan.2004.04.03.23.44.06.765624@hoo.com-amikchi> wrote in
alt.atheism;
On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 11:33:36 -0800 in episode
<18510aff.0404021133.6f40d1a4@posting.google.com> we saw our hero
maff91@yahoo.com (maff):
'The Wizard of Oz Letter'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653858/
Bush pulls back the curtain on who really runs the White House
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 1:50 p.m. ET April 02, 2004
April 2 - This was the week the curtain got pulled back on the Bush
presidency. In exchange for allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify under
oath, President Bush gets to bring along his vice president when he
appears privately before the commission.
What's this about President Cheney bringing along his Vice President?
Yep.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "John Popelish" |
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| Title: Re: OT: 'The Wizard of Oz Letter' |
02 Apr 2004 08:30:09 PM |
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maff wrote:
'The Wizard of Oz Letter'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653858/
Bush pulls back the curtain on who really runs the White House
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 1:50 p.m. ET April 02, 2004
April 2 - This was the week the curtain got pulled back on the Bush
presidency. In exchange for allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify under
oath, President Bush gets to bring along his vice president when he
appears privately before the commission.
Eleanor Clift
This saves time. If Bush went, alone, he would just have to go
through that truth serum interrogation by Cheney and co. when he got
back and nobody much enjoys that.
Well, maybe Cheney does. ;-)
--
John Popelish
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