CONDI RICE POSTMORTEM (Washington Monthly)

[BlueEyedSon]

CONDI RICE POSTMORTEM....Shorter Condi Rice:

"By no means did he ask me to act on a plan....I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about....The responsibility for the FBI to do what it was asked was the FBI's responsibility.....If there was any reason to believe that I needed to do something or that Andy Card needed to do something, I would have been expected to be asked to do it....There is no mention or recommendation of anything that needs to be done about them."

This is courtesy of Garance Franke-Ruta at Tapped, who nicely sums up the consensus about Rice's performance: she claimed that she took the threat of terrorism very seriously indeed, but to explain her inaction in the face of such a serious threat she was forced to paint a picture of herself as someone who just passively waited around for other people to make recommendations. As Fred Kaplan puts it in Slate:

Why did she need a recommendation to do something? Couldn't she make recommendations herself? Wasn't that her job? Given the huge spike of traffic about a possible attack (several officials have used the phrase "hair on fire" to describe the demeanor of those issuing the warnings), should she have been satisfied with the lack of any sign that the FBI wasn't tracking down the cells? Shouldn't she have asked for positive evidence that it was tracking them down?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_04/003660.php

[Paradise]

1. What had my head spinning,

now in print! Thanks Blue.

[SharonAnn]

2. Before this testimony, i didn't realize that she couldn't act without

her subordinates telling her exactly what to do.

[grannylib]

3. Any link to total transcript of her testimony? I want to check my hearing.

I could have sworn I heard her say that the Chimp was 'wandering around the situation room, looking for something to do.'
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now according to the Chimp himself, he couldn't remember BEING in the situation room (Stewart made hay with that one on the Daily Show: where the hell else should the imbecile be, at such a time???)
So now I think I hear Sleezza say that, anyone else catch that??

[gristy]

4. just type these words into news.google

www.news.google.com

rice transcript commission

[grannylib]

6. I found it; it apparently was something she was paraphrasing from Clarke's

book, not her own description of Chimpy's behavior.

[Elidor]

5. It all makes perfect sense now

The fake president has a fake National Security Advisor. 9-11 is what happens when a partisan hack is appointed to a position of grave responsibility.

One of the statements that had my bullshit meter off the scale was her claim under oath that they were too busy improving relations with other countries. :wtf: Oh yeah? What countries were those? The plurality of nations that signed the Kyoto protocols?

[skip fox]

7. But, boy, you're not going to believe this! Breaking: on Condi!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x997172