Confidential
Memo from Kenny Boy to Georgie Boy: "Welcome to the Club!"
May 24, 2002
By Bernard Weiner
Dear Georgie:
I thought I was the only guy facing a political/ethical firing
squad. But you have topped me, my lad. The "I" word is beginning
to be brought out of mothballs. Unless something major happens
(another terrorist attack would help out a lot), you're about
to join Bubba in the impeachment well.
When Enron went South and the press sharks came out to taste
the blood, I just had to eat the bad publicity, declare bankruptcy,
hunker down and try to ride it out. (So far, it's working;
nobody's even asked me lately about Enron's connection to
the oil pipeline now planned to go through Afghanistan to
our dormant plant in India.)
You, my friend, are in a somewhat different position. I know
you're trying to find a hunker place, but I'm afraid, given
your rather lonely position at the top, there's really no
place for you to hunk. And there are too many folks wanting
your head -- on a plate -- and they're not all Democrats.
Sorry to say it, Georgie, but you have blown this 9/11 thing
badly. Welcome to the club! The bullyboy tactics we've both
used took us a long way and made us a lot of money, but we
also had to run over a lot of people, friends and foes, on
the climb to the top, and a good many of them aren't a bit
sorry about the daggers being aimed our way by our enemies.
If I could publicly speak on your behalf -- if that would
help and not hurt -- you know that I would. I'll forget your
pretending that you aren't quite sure who I am: I know how
the game has to be played. I know that if anything happens
to me legally, you'll be there in the end with a presidential
pardon. That's how the game is played, too. I give you scratch,
you scratch my back. (Needless to say, after the private courier
presents you this letter, read it and burn it -- DON'T SHRED
IT!)
But, despite our similar circumstances, I can wiggle out
of my tight spot, given enough time. But you -- you have real
problems. I'm talking about the 9/11 coverup; you blew that
one big time.
It seems the lawyers and press (you really need to take care
of that Rather guy, teach him and the other journalists a
good lesson) are starting to piece together the dots. You
believed that you'd never get caught, that you could browbeat
or frighten your would-be critics into averting their eyes
-- a stance with which I'm certainly familiar -- but these
beliefs meant that you weren't as careful in covering your
tracks as you should have been. (Besides, how long did you
think it would take before Daschle and Gephardt revealed that
you and Dick had asked them to stay away from investigating
pre-9/11 matters? The implication is not pretty.)
Having key members of the Cabinet abandon flying by commercial
airliners in July of 2001 makes it appear, in retrospect,
that you and they knew something about the upcoming use of
hijacked commercial jets as possible terrorist weapons long
before you chose to share that information with others. Now
you say that you learned what was about to go down only in
August of 2001, which certainly suggests that since the others,
including key senators, knew in July, either you're lying
or you weren't in charge and that whoever was in charge wasn't
providing you key information. Not good, Georgie. Whether
the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher,
it ain't good for the pitcher.
Intelligence officials in France and Israel and the Philippines
and Malaysia and here in this country had been talking for
years about thwarted attempts by terrorists to use jetliners
as weapons against icon structures (Eiffel Tower, et al.),
our own intelligence commissions and CIA had warned of such
impending attacks -- so your blaming the debacle on the lack
of CIA/FBI sharing of information again means either you and
your staff are incompetent or lying. Pitcher/stone again.
Not good.
No, it's clear to me that you did what we all did: you had
insider information and you used it to your advantage. (The
same for those who bought all those put options on United
and American airlines stocks in the days prior to 9/11. That's
a hard one to explain away.) I commend you for it, but worry
about the public-relations flap of not covering your backside
more intelligently.
Your biggest problem is not the inevitable Democrat brouhaha
about all this. Americans expect such partisanship. It's the
fact that 4000 people died, and a lot of their relatives and
other concerned citizens are middle-of-the-road ordinary Americans,
conservatives and liberals, and they are angry and looking
for someone to blame. Guess what? You're it. (And I'm it in
the energy area.)
You can try to ride it out with bravado, blaming "partisan
politics" and so on -- Dick's really good at that; you aren't
so good, even coming across as so out-of-control the other
day in your rambling discourse that journalists thought maybe
you were coming mentally unglued or maybe had tipped the old
bottle. But I don't think you'll be able to stem the rising
demand for a full investigation. (Is that why Karen Hughes
left so suddenly? She smelled what was about to make contact
with the fan and got out while the getting was good?)
My advice would be to get in front of the story. 1) Get all
the facts out -- everything, even the July Phoenix FBI memo
warning about terrorists enrolling in U.S. flight schools,
and the August Minneapolis FBI memo about the arrest of Massoui
for suspicious behavior at a flight school -- and blame "the
system" for failing to connect all the dots. Don't make it
look like you're trying to hide anything.
2) There will be another terrorist attack as Al Qaeda regroups,
or something like it can be "anticipated," if you get my drift.
Be ready to move, a la 9/11; have plans ready to clamp down
harder on dissent (those who question your tactics are supporting
the terrorists, etc.), the press, Congress' asking embarrassing
questions. Re-ratchet up the "war on terrorism" rhetoric,
"homeland defense," "national security," and so on; put the
Dems on the patriotic-silence routine. It's worked before
and it's worth a try now, even though the American public
is not as gullible as it once was.
The move for impeachment will proceed in the country and
the Congress, but you might be able to slow its growth prior
to the upcoming elections, as citizens rally around our "wartime
President," and possibly even slow down the Democrat election
victory in Congress that seems just around the corner.
If you resign or are forced out, Dick becomes President (unless
he's impeached, too) and things can proceed as normal. If
that happens, Dick has to make sure IMMEDIATELY to appoint
a Vice President of our business-friendly frame of mind. We
don't want to risk Daschle or Gephardt or, God forbid, Colin
Powell becoming President if anything should befall Dick of
the damaged heart.
As I'm sure you and your father realize, we're playing for
Big Stakes here. Not just money, although that's always a
big one, but staying in control of the agenda and the goodie-
and power-dispensary. You lose the momentum, and those controlling,
taxing Democrats get back in, and we're all in deep doodoo.
So, Georgie Boy, I seriously recommend that you come up with
something to get these impeachment-fodder stories off the
front pages and leading the evening news -- dump all the documents
into Congress' lap while you spin the "it's-the-system-that's-responsible"
line, heat up Kashmir, stoke up the Palestinian war, invite
another good old terrorist event in the U.S., and stop pussyfooting
around with your/our domestic enemies. Sic 'em, boy. Bite
them before they get anywhere near your jugular.
Bernard Weiner, a poet and playwright, was the San Francisco
Chronicle's theater critic for nearly 20 years. A Ph.D. in
government & international relations, he has taught at Western
Washington University, San Diego State University, and has
published in The Nation, Village Voice, The Progressive and
widely on the Internet.
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