Whirling Dervish Politics

09/26/2006

Paul Munnis

Bin Laden might be alive or dead, healthy or infirm, nobody knows and if they do they are not admitting it. But his shadow continues to darken U.S. politics.

Ex-president Bill Clinton, invited by a FOX TV News reporter to their studio to discuss global warming found himself waylaid by the reporter who accused him on national TV of slacking off on killing Bin Laden. That set Clinton off and he delivered a tongue lashing to the reporter that left the TV screens sizzling and the airwaves shimmering. Clinton insisted that he had at least tried to get Bin Laden, more than the GOP had done for eight months before 9/11.

Ever since then, the GOP spin machine is trying to recover from the blow by spinning the material 24 hours a day. Frankly they look like fools as they continually whack at Clinton and the Democratic Party. Their efforts resemble a game of “Whack A Mole.”

Why are they so upset? The report is repeating what the 911 Commission reported – that Bush doped off for eight months after taking office and did not vigorously hunt down Bin Laden. Oops, the truth does hurt – especially at election time.

Well, Democrats are not at all sorry that Clinton wagged his finger and laid it on the GOP as a simple statement of the facts. Let them get used to the idea.

No sooner did the air get thick with GOP fog when the Bush Administration found their own National Intelligence Services and CIA issuing a report that concluded that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq contributed to the spread of terrorism.

That has set off the spin commandos again. This time they called the intelligence services a pack of liars and Bush said that he will declassify “selective” parts of the intelligence report to refute their claim.

The disclosure of parts of the intelligence document representing the U.S.’s first formal assessment of terrorist threats since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 did nothing at all to quell the storm. The conclusions are clear – the Bush Administration has made the problems of terrorism worse for America and they nurtured terrorism. No, Democrats did not invent that story – it comes from 16 national intelligence agencies and is a consensus view by them.

For people of either Party none of this is real news and in fact is an anti-climax to things long known and reported and completely denied by the Bush Administration.

Democrats are not ashamed to use this information to show the American people that voting for GOP candidates to govern is a huge mistake. That too has set the GOP off on more spin frenzy as they think about the damage that they are doing to themselves.

At this rate the GOP needs to be treated for group hypertension. We Democrats are already medicated thank you – we had our treatment right after the Swift Boating of GOP candidates during the 2004 election.