Good Point

[ilpostino]

FROM TNR online

07.17.03

DEAN'S TENET PROBLEM AND OURS
by Franklin Foer

Candidate: Howard Dean
Category: Foreign Policy
Grade: D

As any dispassionate observer can plainly see, the administration has a plan for extricating itself from its Niger quagmire: Blame George Tenet. And most Democrats realize they need to carefully avoid playing along. That's why most all the presidential contestants have made statements that follow the example set by Bob Graham: "We do not have a George Tenet problem; we have a George Bush problem."

But not Howard Dean. He thinks George Tenet should go. Yesterday, he told the Associated Press, "The reason the director should step aside is that he is now part of the shifting of the blame." If I follow his logic, he's saying this: George Tenet is being set up as the fall guy; so let him fall. With Tenet out of the picture, attention can finally focus on Bush.

There are two significant problems with this line. The first is moral. By all accounts, the CIA didn't want those 16 little words in the State of the Union. It was clearly railroaded by the White House, and the CIA shouldn't take the lion's share of the blame for the administration's inclusion. Before Tenet gets nailed for the Niger reference, there are NSC officials whose heads should roll.

The second problem is political. The White House wants Tenet to take the fall for a reason. His resignation would give Bush an opportunity to make a speech where he would admit contrition over the 16 little words; he would express pain at having to accept George Tenet's resignation; and he would then call on the nation to move forward from this error. It seems highly likely with Tenet's scalp taken the nation would indeed move forward. Scandal averted.

[Clovis Sangrail]

1. maybe

but Tenet didn't seem to take the fall quite how they wanted.

It is arguable that the treatment of Tenet, and Wilson's wife, and all of the blame that is being heaped on the intelligence community in general, will cause a backlash in the intelligence community that the administration can't survive.

They know where all the bodies are buried.

[Clovis Sangrail]

2. maybe

but Tenet didn't seem to take the fall quite how they wanted.

It is arguable that the treatment of Tenet, and Wilson's wife, and all of the blame that is being heaped on the intelligence community in general, will cause a backlash in the intelligence community that the administration can't survive.

They know where all the bodies are buried.