More from Richard Clarke and 60 Minutes

I figured i'd post some of these sour nuggets:

"Clarke was the president's chief adviser on terrorism, yet it wasn't until Sept. 11 that he ever got to brief Mr. Bush on the subject. Clarke says that prior to Sept. 11, the administration didn't take the threat seriously.

'We had a terrorist organization that was going after us! Al Qaeda. That should have been the first item on the agenda. And it was pushed back and back and back for months.

'There's a lot of blame to go around, and I probably deserve some blame, too. But on January 24th, 2001, I wrote a memo to Condoleezza Rice asking for, urgently -- underlined urgently -- a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with the impending al Qaeda attack. And that urgent memo-- wasn't acted on.

'I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years.' "


Al Franken goes into GREAT detail regarding all these matters in his most recent book. it's a little suprising just how informed that book is concerning the dates and actions of various members of the Bush Administration. Clarke confirms that some of the most important meetings were put off until it was too late:

Finally, says Clarke, "The cabinet meeting I asked for right after the inauguration took place-- one week prior to 9/11."

This further cements my view that being wrong, being THIS wrong, has made the VP irrational in his willingness to see terrorists behind every tree. the zealousness he shows, comes out of the fear he's going to miss it again and so he overreacts in all the wrong directions. this is why he almost seems in denial about WMD and the Iraq-Al Qaeda connections. he's been scared and he wants to see those connections regardless of what the reality. its like a man in shock, rocking himself, saying some reassuring fact to himself over and over so that he can find some certainty.

i exaggerate, but in a way i do not. speaking of life in denial:

As for the alleged pressure from Mr. Bush to find an Iraq-9/11 link, Stephen Hadley (Bush's National Security Council) says, "We cannot find evidence that this conversation between Mr. Clarke and the president ever occurred."

When told by Stahl that 60 Minutes has two sources who tell us independently of Clarke that the encounter happened, including "an actual witness," Hadley responded, "Look, I stand on what I said."

Sure you do Stephen, and America thanks you for watching out for us.