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The reactions to Clarke

OK, the reactions are predictable, given the way the Administration took off after Paul O'Neill. Someone serves the Administration and then gets disappointed by its actions and all of a sudden is the devil incarnate once he writes about it. That's not surprising. The need to vilify seems especially strong for the Bushites.

What are the tactics? Some at the White House are wondering at the "timing" of the book, forgetting completely that Time published most of this information when they interviewed Clarke more than a year ago. Does that Bush spokesperson on Foxnews read Time? Of course, "timing" implies this is purely political, but none at the White House are directly accusing Clarke of being a closet Democrat. Leave that for Blogsville, or the surrogates, who claim Clarke is angling for a job on the Kerry team. Best guess here is that Clarke is a Republican, or so it says here: Post article from today

There's a certain amount of messenger shooting going on as well. Foxnews has been more partisan today than I've ever seen it, with several wondering if Clarke ever did a good job at all in his role as "Terrorist Czar." Forget that Condi Rice praised the man in her comments.

And what was it that the White House a few times today and through multiple surrogates said the President didn't recall talking to Clarke in the Situation Room on 9/12. When told that there were witnesses who include Condi Rice, they all switched to another story, that of course Bush should ask about whether Iraq is involved.

The most intriguing question I've seen concerns who will write the next memoir critical of Bush. It won't be a true believer, so Ridge, Cheney, Ashcroft and Rumsfeld are out. Whitman? Thompson? Powell? Rice? Those are my candidates, not necessarily in that order, but surely none of them will do so before the elections.

Overall, today's BushCorp antics were ugly to watch. And the Dow dropped over 100 points. Confidence in Bush waning there as well?

Rinse, spit, repeat. . .