Lieberman, Dean call for CIA director's resignation

[Freddie Stubbs]

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Two of the Democratic presidential candidates called for the resignation of embattled CIA director George Tenet on Wednesday as the rest of the field faulted President Bush for misleading the public about Iraq.

"The president has to accept some responsibility," Joe Lieberman told supporters during a campaign appearance. "This president seems to be saying, 'The buck never stops here."'

The Connecticut senator spoke as Tenet testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about questionable intelligence the White House used to justify war with Iraq. Bush's claimed in his State of the Union speech that Iraq sought uranium from Africa - a statement apparently based on a series of documents now known to be forgeries.

Tenet accepted responsibility for allowing the reference to get in the speech, though officials with the National Security Council, the State Department and the White House staff were also involved in drafting the address.

more: http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/statewire/hc-17010803.apds.m0115.bc-ct--demojul17.story

[burr]

1. George Tenet, director of central intelligence or speech writer?

<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/15/iraq/main563260.shtml>

Members of the adminstration from the CIA director to the Secretary of Defense do little more than PR work and attend fundraisers in modern politics. Hell...George Tenet, Rumsfield, and David Boren were the co-authors of Bob Woodward's PR effort for the adminstration "Bush At War."

And now with a wink and a nod, shrub allows Tenet to keep his job in exchange for admitting what they claim was a no more than a typo. "Sorry, no bad intellegence here...we don't know where it came from."

Ask ole Tenet. "Sorry that's classified, national security you see! Try talking to the speechwriters, this probably should not have been in there."

Shrub..."Tenet a good guy, can make his good decisions when he tries."

[chimpymustgo]

2. Sorry, wrong fall guy.

That's not where the buck stops - and the media and misadministration might be all to willing to let it stop there and MOVE ON.

As John Edwards and Bob Graham have pointed out - this goes to the White House.

[ProfessorPlum]

3. You might like this logic . . .

i saw these posts on Atrios' blog comments this morning. I'll post them here, this makes excellent sense to me:

snip

Dean's call for Tenet to resign has two very good tactical reasons behind it. First, if Tenet will ever have the spine and/or cojones to spill the real story, it ain't going to happen while he's still in a government job.

Second, it takes Bush at his word and the words he put in Tenet's mouth -- that Tenet supposedly didn't do his job and let an effective lie get out -- which then obviously raises the question, so what kind of President keeps someone who supposedly did that in his job? And the answer is, a President who doesn't want Tenet to leave and be freer to speak honestly.
Steady Eddie | 07.17.03 - 11:06 am |

Also

Dean's comment, while it may seem intemperate, was an interesting maneuver.

He's saying, if Tenet actually cleared the naughty version of the speech (something we all know, now, to be untrue), Tenet needs to be fired.

The implication is that Tenet hasn't been fired, because Tenet didn't do anything wrong, and everyone in the junta knows it. More to the point, there is nothing more likely to leak than a profoundly unhappy Former CIA Director, and his agency.

With the 9/11 report scheduled to come out soon, they had better try to keep Tenet and his spooks cheerful, lest some eager young reporter get hold of the secret decoder ring that translates all the (redacted) into real words.
Seraphiel | Homepage | 07.17.03 - 11:26 am |

[Nicholas_J]

4. They can call for it...

But only Kerry will find the legal arguments for requireing it.

[burr]

5. Why not George Tenet...

I can see it now!

DRAFT GEORGE III! WINIT WITH TENET!

Forget about Kerry, Clark, or Dean.