Dean, when in this going to stop. The Repubs and Demos have been using the Demonizing/Smear Machine on each other for ages. That's why when I see or hear about stuff like this, my blood doesn't boil anymore. I tire of all this. Kerry wins and the Repubs start. Please. No one's innocent in this.

You know you would think that in the middle of a war we could let the partisan BS go, you really would. Yes people can argue it out over domestic stuff, but when it comes to the war it should be about what we're going to do in the long run, not casting aspersions and finding people to point fingers at, calling people liars and incompetents and trying to fix blame--it's all so disgusting.

Whatever. Maybe it's just the nature of the game. I don't have to like it though. And I don't.

What if the war itself is partisan BS? You act like this was not going on when Clinton was trying to fight a war.

Calling it partisan BS says more about you than anyone. The debate was held for over a year, and voted for, and argued passionately in favor by, nearly equal numbers on both sides of the aisle in overwhelming majorities, for over a dozen reasons.

One could at least--at least--have the class, not to mention the integrity, to acknowledge that.

And no, I do not act like this wasn't going on under Clinton, since I have repeatedly pointed out how over the top much anti-Clinton rhetoric was on countless occasions--and you know damn well I have, Rick.

I've also been the one pointing out that neither the rhetoric nor the facts put out by Clinton were in any substantial wise different. Becuase they weren't. Which any honest-minded person, whether partisan or not, would openly admit without hesitation.

I do point out, however, that in a time of major warfare, which is what we're in, you'd think that people could rise above the petty squabbles, the name-calling, the slimy inuendo and smears. That they won't in a time of national import is what disgusts me so.

Grow the hell up. You didn't agree with the war. Concede, please, that rational, competent, decent people can disagree with you. Stop calling people liars and incompetents for simply drawing different conclusions from you. Acknowledge the fundamentally bipartisan nature of this problem, of the information and the votes that got us here.

You can disagree with a war effort without slandering people. You can show true patriotism with the grace that says, "I had terrible reservations about this but now that we're in I want us to win, and want to contribute what I can to that effort."

I don't feel this is too much to ask, but for some people apparently it is.

I repeat again that not a thing I'm saying here is anything I'd be saying differently under a Gore or a Kerry administration. Not over something this big.

Dean, your rhetoric is at odds with your actions and possibly your intent. You state your disgust with petty parisanship (and I would submit that investigating the root cause of the most tragic incident I have ever witnessed is far from petty), then point me to a site with your approval which states:
The [Demagogic] Democratic smear machine has already started to attack Bush...
That was mere counterspin. Moreover had a Dem been in the whitehouse, impeachment proceedings would have already started and this would have been Exhibit A.

You got something to say, then say it. I truly believe that you could have done a better, more in depth, and impartial analysis of the document, if only you had tried.

I've read the thing now and posted it in unaltered form at my site which I got from "The Smoking Gun."

The one thing, and this is by no means an indictment -- just wishful thinking, is that after POTUS read the thing, and got to the last paragraph as Kevin Aylward instructs, is if only Bush had asked: "So how are the FBI investigations comming?" Or if he or the DCI or Dir.FBI, or Condi, or someone said, "Ya know, although I'm tired of swatting at flies, while we're at it, let's stomp on these creeps before something bad happens. Bring 'em in for questioning, roust 'em, wire-tap 'em and copy their hard-drives. Can we do that? Someone call Ashcroft and find out what he needs to make this happen. I'll be darned if I'll let some coyotes loose in our own barn."

Dammit. Clarke needed more balls. No wonder he thought he should give an apology. Enjoy his movie, I won't be giving him one red cent for his neglect.

Your wishful thinking is duly noted, Mark. So Bush should not only have preemptively attacked Al Qaeda, he should also have preemptively and under his own steam ordered enhancements to the ongoing investigations that would make the most vocal supporters of the Patriot Act scream in terror.

Riiiiight.

Unless you can somehow demonstrate that there was something in that memo that would have led directly to the hijackers' doors, all you're really doing is wishfully stating that they should have shaken the trees a little harder and hoped to stumble onto them.

Unserious. Lame. Obvious.

Just a sad regret, that's all.

The memo told Bush everything he needed to know to stop 9-11. Just ask "Dick" Ben-Veniste, as channeled by me.

That certain people have become hellbent on turning the 9/11 commission into a witch hunt has been obvious for weeks to anyone who isn't a partisan hack. There's really not much more to say about it, is there?

Victor Davis Hanson's latest piece discusses Condi's appearance a bit and talks about the roots of the war.

http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200404080815.asp

A key passage:

"The sad truth is that civilization itself is engaged in a worldwide struggle against the barbarism of Islamic fundamentalism. Just this past month the killers and their plots have been uncovered in London, Paris, Madrid, Pakistan, and North Africa — the same tired rhetoric of their hatred echoing from Iraq to the West Bank. While Western elites quibble over exact ties between the various terrorist ganglia, the global viewer turns on the television to see the same suicide bombing, the same infantile threats, the same hatred of the West, the same chants, the same Koranic promises of death to the unbeliever, and the same street demonstrations across the world.

"Looking for exact professed cooperation between an Islamic fascist and the rogue regime that finds such anti-Western violence useful is like proving that Mussolini, Tojo, and Hitler all coordinated their attacks and worked in some conspiratorial fashion — when in fact Japan had no knowledge of the invasion of Russia, and Hitler had no warning of Pearl Harbor or Mussolini's invasion of Greece.

"In fact, it didn't matter that they were united only by a loose and shared hatred of Western liberalism and emboldened by a decade of democratic appeasement. And our fathers, perhaps better men than we, didn't care too much for beating their breasts about the exact nature of collective Axis strategy or blaming each other for past lapses, but instead went to pretty terrible places like Bastogne, Anzio, and Okinawa to put an end to their enemies all.

As they say, go read the whole thing...

I've been watching politics for over fourty years. The Democrats have become "progressively" sleazier year by year. I've come to loathe and despise them.

Bill,

It is actually rather flattering to be despised. The worst thing in life is to be ignored, not despised.

“Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US”

Good Lord, people. What in God’s name would the CIA or Clarke have to put in the HEADLINE of the PDA to get Condolezza Rice and George W. Bush to pay attention to the threat? Intelligence did their jobs up to this point. It was up to Rice and Bush to do something to change the domestic security equation and they honed missile-defense and Iraq policy instead. Although whatever they had done might not have changed the outcome on 9-11, it is the purview of the commission to find out why it happened. Arrogant, single-minded pursuit of neo-conservative or "anything-but-Clinton" ideology seems like fair territory.