Clinton rips...

It's really funny how distorted history can be.  Here's some choice quotes regarding Clinton's 1998 air strikes which were targetting Al Qaeada:

Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV):
          Look at the movie Wag the Dog. I think this has all the elements of that movie,
          Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. Our reaction to the embassy bombings should be based   
          on sound credible evidence, not a knee-jerk reaction to try to direct public attention  
          away from his personal problems.

Pete Sessions (R-TX)
          Im very supportive of the strike that has happened, but I will tell you that the
          timing is very questionable. This was the day that Monica Lewinsky has gone back to the
          grand jury, evidently enraged. Certainly that information will be overshadowed.

John Ashcroft (R-MO):
          We support the president out of a sense of duty whenever he deploys military
          forces, but were not sure - were these forces sent at this time because he needed to
          divert our attention from his personal problems?

So back then, Clinton was just doing it to distract from Monica?  Now, it's more convenient politically to assert that he didn't do enough.

As a none-to-biased-served-under-the-sleeze-bag, it was great for me for different reasons.  I loved how he was so cool in office and then just blows his stack now that he doesn't have an election to worry about.  That speaks volumes to his sincerity (or total lack thereof) when he was in office.

And it's laughable to say that the Bush folks have been getting softballs from the Media (or are you just saying Fox in general), I can find more than one confrontation where the folks with Press Passes were flat out confrontational with the White House PR folks.

The idea that he had Osama literaly in the crosshairs is a bit overblown, but the fact is he sat on his hands (or was doing something else less than constructive with them) for 8 years as we endured one terrorist attack after another and did nothing helpful.  Hell, his administration is a large part of the reason Israel has had to make so many concessions in their negotiations. 

And in that interview he once again demonstarted his utter lack of understanding of the military when he said the administration thought Iraq was "seven times more important" than finding Bin Ladin because there was that many more troops in Iraq than in Afghanistan.  Good one Billy, nice logic.  Except that in Iraq you're dealing with an active insurgency, far more significant nation building in a country teetering on civil war.  While in Afghanistan it's basically peace-keeping, mild nation building and of course the search for OBL.  So what should we do?  Cram 750,000 troops into the area and just do a shoulder to shoulder walk through the mountains until we find him?Yeah, Slick Willy, that sounds like something you would do.  Idiot.  It's about as smart as announcing that we wouldn't use ground troops in Kosovo before any military action was taken, basically telling the other side to do nothing but prepare air defense.  Got any more jems besides sounding indignant and making up stuff about how hard you tried to get him.  You might be a Rhodes scholar but you couldn't lead a military through a Boy Scouts obstacle course.

bts

Re. softballs: he was talking specifically about Fox News. 

This link has the transcript, and i believe full interview too.  Can't wait to watch it later!

I think it's a little (OK, a LOT) naive for Clinton to go on a fox news show, of all places, and not expect to get asked this question (and the agreement was 15 minutes for the global warming initiative, and then 15 minutes whatever Wallace wanted, at least accdg to Wallace), so Clinton is a little disingenuous when he calls it an ambush. 

Why shouldn't he be asked that question?  And what does whether Fox News asked Bush, Cheney et al have to do with his answers?  They should all be asked that question.

I don't think he ripped Wallace (who is hardly a shinign example of a right winger) a new one.  I think he came off looking a bit foolish.  Although the man could sell ice to eskimos, he is smooooth.  Bush would've stammered and ummmmed his way through those questions.

Wow, pretty intense.   So, going after Al-Qaeda back then was "wagging the dog," just a diversion from the Monica-gate circus that we were being fed around the clock?  Huh.  Interesting.  Thanks Chris.

Link above is now dead, my bad.  The media matters clip works:  http://mediamatters.org/items/200609240002

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Hmm, now I can see "and you sit there with that smirk on your face" in context.  Did they hire this guy for Best Smirk or what? 

I don't really follow that as an argument defending Clinton.  He's accused of not doing enough when his administration was in office for Khobar Towers, Embassy Bombings, USS Cole, etc.  He's being asked to account for what he did over YEARS for attacks that happened while HE was in charge. 

The defense: uh, well the new administration had 8 whole months.  Well gee, sorry the new pres. couldn't do is 8 months what you didn't manage to do in the half a decade or so that you had.  Especially when the first few months is generally taken for granted as a transition period.

Citing one of Mike Moore's favorite gripes, eh?  What should he have done?  Said, "Holy crap kids, we're at war, gotta go."  I have no doubt that those who don't like him would find fault with any and every reaction he had, no matter how passive or aggressive.  What makes me shudder is to think what Gore would've done.

Obviously with that whole impeachment thing.  Face the facts, the guy is a self-serving ***** who was a philanderer and a con artist (It depends on what your definition of "is" is)... 

Okay.

bts 

That's cool, I looked afterwards and realized that to be the case.  I reckon between everybody in the media accusing everyone else of being slanted one way or another that it all evens out in the end.

@drew, my bad, no offense to the Boy Scouts.  I'm probably just harboring some deep resentment because I never made it past Weblos.

bts