[<< "Does the White House ever fact-check anything?"] [Archive Index] [>>"Oppo Research."]
04/15/2004 Archived Entry: "Scathing"
Scathing
Blumenthal in the Guardian. This is like a kick in the chest.
On Wednesday, President Bush held only his third press conference and was asked three times whether he accepted responsibility for failing to act on warning before September 11. "I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't [sic] yet," he said. "I just haven't - you just put me under the spot here and maybe I'm not quick - as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."Bush's press conference was the culmination of his recent efforts to staunch the political wounds of his bleeding polls since the 9/11 commission began public hearings and violence spiralled in Iraq. Bush had tried to divert blame by declaring that the August 6 memo he was forced to declassify at the commission's insistence contained no "actionable intelligence", even though it specifically mentioned the World Trade Centre and Washington as targets.
Bush, in fact, does not read his President's Daily Briefs, but has them orally summarised every morning by the CIA director, George Tenet. President Clinton, by contrast, read them closely and alone, preventing any aides from interpreting what he wanted to know first-hand. He extensively marked up his PDBs, demanding action on this or that, which is almost certainly the likely reason the Bush administration withheld his memoranda from the 9/11 commission.
"I know he doesn't read," one former Bush national security council staffer told me. Several other former NSC staffers corroborated this. It seems highly unlikely that he read the national intelligence estimate on WMD before the Iraq war that consigned contrary evidence and caveats that undermined the case to footnotes and fine print. Nor is there any evidence that he read the state department's 17-volume report, The Future of Iraq, warning of nearly all the postwar pitfalls, that was shelved by the neocons in the Pentagon and Vice-President Cheney's office.
Replies: 8 people speak up
This clown has a masters degree from Harvard and he's too lazy (or stupid) to read daily briefings. Who was it who said Bush wouldn't make it as a manager of a K Mart?
Posted by Demeur @ 04/15/2004 07:32 PM NY
Bush, in fact, does not read his President's Daily Briefs, but has them orally summarised every morning by the CIA director, George Tenet
Could this be the discrepancy in the PDB that was released and the PBD that was supposedly 11.5 pages long? That what we're looking at is Tenet's "script" for George and the real document is still classified --with whatever damning information it may contain?
Posted by Tanystropheus @ 04/15/2004 09:05 PM NY
He didnt answer because it wasn't his fault. The press gave it's self away as a liberal mouth piece. Kerryco will not be able to stand up to questioning either.
Example: ever been to a meeting expecting to talk about one thing and the meeting goes off on a tangent. I sat thru 2 just this last week. I dont have enough time to fill in all the gory details. but here is the short story. meeting; homeowner,architect, contractor ( me). suppliers ( fixtures etc.) Now the home is supposed to be queen anne style. some supplier sends this nitwit over with 15 books of period victorian products. She got the homeowner off on a ride that finally I had to ask her to just show the queen anne stuff or leave. There were questions I couldnt answer, why?, because someone had thier own agenda.
Yes i know this isn't life or death, blah blah. This i know for sure, there isnt a one of you incuding myself that is smart enough or connected enough to run this country. None of you could possible read every thing that is put in front of you like any president would have to read. Your all some glorified Im right hes wrong perfectionist's get over yourselves.
Bush cant possibly please the left, get over it.
Posted by Robin Hacker @ 04/16/2004 06:46 AM NY
Yes Robin, but there's a world of difference between an intelligence briefing, and a meeting to discuss home remodeling. Bush had his own agenda, and that was to ignore anything he didn't feel was personally important, and I'd wager that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda weren't on that list. If he has nothing to hide, then why is he resisting the 9/11 Commission at every turn, stonewalling, and being highly uncooperative? That in itself speaks volumes more than his actual testimony. The cover-up is by definition worse than the actual crime. The crime may be unintentional, but a cover-up is intentional, and shows intent to deceive. Seriously Robin, you need to present stronger evidence in support of your arguments. A sweeping generalization like Bush can't possibly please the left can be proven wrong with one example, the do-not-call list. I was happy Bush pushed that through, despite the objections of the telemarketing industry. But it's an example that has few companions. Bush hasn't done what he said, if we held him just to his campaign promises, he's failed in that respect. And check your spelling, grammar, etc. when you use fucked-up syntax, it just demeans your argument. You need to stop using non-sequiturs, straw-man arguments, and sweeping generalizations in your defense of a man who was a miserable failure as a businessman, governor, and president.
Posted by Stentor @ 04/16/2004 03:23 PM NY
Tanystropheus. It is reported by the 911 comission that Bush was in Crawford Texas on vacation and George Tenant was on leave at the time. So, who read the PDB to Bush? His mommy?
Posted by Demeur @ 04/16/2004 05:54 PM NY
The writer is disingenious in misrepresenting the President's remarks. In the given quote, he wasn't responding to a question about responsibiliity for the attack on the World Trade Center. He was responding to a question as to whether he had many any mistakes. He was obviously unprepared for this question, said he was sure he had made mistakes, but declined to offer any.
You lose credibility when you make stuff up, and your arguments become hollow.
Blogs are blogs; news reports are something else.
Posted by Mister Thorne @ 04/16/2004 06:16 PM NY
took you a few days to look that one up didnt it Stentor, I dont care if my spelling is always correct or my grammer either. Im not an english major nor do i care to be one. The question was out of line, period. Bush didnt drive the planes into the towers. He had no responsibility for the acts of others. It could not have been prevented. The liberal press continually goes out of its way to present Bush in a bad light. The commission is a joke. every commissionis a joke ,( warren) as an example. Now Gorelick is on the hot seat for writing some of the rules that kept agencies apart. My point is if your prepared for one thing and another happens, you have to change. Kinda like Kerry on so many issues I cant even begin to count. What was that line now, oh yeah, Kerry has been around so long he has voted on both sides of an issue, if there was third he would have voted that way also. Kerry is a poor choice for the Dem's. He is to far left for the main stream public. Stronger evidence?, good grief, there is a perfect example of how the left acts. If I say something I better damn well have a link and a report to fall back on but you guys just shout louder or call names. Post a fucking link that says Bush knew what year,day,time ,method that some islamic pig fucker was going to do what they did. Not some connect the dot shit, if this one would,could,should of. As for the war in Iraq, if the (U)sually (N)othing would have not been corrupted by France and Russia in the soon to be infamous food for oil scam, we wouldn't be there with the weak coalition we have now. Should we be there now? Write your congressman or woman and ask why they voted the way they did. Bush didnt get into this alone, congress helped. Are they now going to claim stupidity. No instead they are claiming Bush and the CIA,FBI and whom ever dosent support thier latest position lied to them. Well guess what, the founders of the country decieded YOU and I were to stupid to figure it out on our own. So they represent us. I dont even know how Oberstar stood on the war and I dont care. He hasnt been back in Minnesota long enough to know whats going on here. His Children didnt even attend school in Minnesota. What I do get tired of is the back biting on both sides. I get to have an opnion and I dont have to have a link to support it. Kerryco and the left suck. If Democrat's go with Kerry they will lose in November. As a more conservative Democrat, I will not support him. And Im taking everyone I can with me. I know this will do no good in Demissota, but ya never know
Posted by Robin Hacker @ 04/17/2004 02:54 AM NY
"Bush cant possibly please the left, get over it."
And you, Robin, cannot possibly be pleased by this liberal blog or the liberal posters, so get over it.
Posted by mykull @ 04/18/2004 07:38 PM NY
