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A Clinton (Bill) sandwich

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, September 24, 2006

This is a "Clinton (Bill) sandwich, as MTP was delayed for golf coverage, and thus his interviews went first and last. The first was, in the words of the interviewer, "unusual," while the latter was very pleasant.

Bill Clinton on FNS praised Dick "Book Tour" Clarke as the source of all good in his Administration and held up Clarke's novel as the definitive treatise on his actions in the war on terror. He was unhinged but the host allowed him to regain his composure. It was hysterical.

On TW, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would not answer Steph's hypotheticals about waterboarding. We couldn't set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, he said, and the new measure on detainee treatment set definitions for Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

Tom Kean, junior, said that he agrees with the President on tax cuts, and Bob Menendez complained about the "politics of personal destruction."

John McCain held court on FTN this morning, arguing for an increase in the size of the Army and the Marine Corps. and expressing confidence in his detainee legislation.

Arlen Specter and Jane Harman were guest-host John King's guests on LE. Harman, a former Georgetown law professor, argued that Specter was a "good lawyer" but had sold out on the detainee issue. For his part, Specter argued that he was not in a box and that McCain had taken the power of habeas corpus from the federal courts.

Harman argued that the "intelligence was absolutely clear" that Saddam had never spoken to al Qaeda.

And finally, Clinton and Russert on MTP. It was a very pleasant interview. He did not criticize the Bush Administration as overtly, choosing instead his air of superiority, and he said that he wasn't serious when he said that Hillary might not win a Presidential run.

--------- Read More for the show-by-show review:

WALLACE AND CLINTON (BILL) ON FNS. FNS Host Chris Wallace talked to Clinton (Bill), who desperately and angrily defended his record as if the history books were watching. "Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President?" Why did bin Laden call us a paper tiger after you quit Somalia with no response?

Clinton answered Wallace by caterwauling about President Bush and the neocons and FOX News picking on him. He complained that he had only eight years to catch OBL, and he tried so hard, but Bush and the neocons and the damn right-wingers didn't do anything in eight months.

He said that Dick "Book Tour" Clarke was the greatest anti-terror guy in the world and that was his gift to Bush which Bush evidently squandered. Never mind that Dick Clarke, even if he were the world's greatest anti-terror guy, did nothing to stop all the al Qaeda attacks during the Clinton Administration and certainly didn't help President Bush.

Clinton – his face twisted and twisting in anger, anguish, or horror – accused Wallace of picking on him because FOX News is mean to him. Rupert Murdoch had supported his global warming initiatives, Clinton argued with the same trademark definitiveness which he had used when telling us that he had not had sexual relations with that woman – so Wallace had to save face for FOX by attacking him.

The caterwauling continued, as Clinton raved about FOX never asking the Bushies why they "fired" Dick "Book Tour" Clarke. Actually, Clarke quit his job in 2003 and began work on his novel, Against All Enemies. Clarke's single greatest contribution to the fight against terrorism and our national security was authorizing Saudis, including the bin Laden family, to fly out of the United States after 9-11. He should never have been entrusted with that authority, but he was a Clinton leftover.

Clinton held Dick Clarke's novel as the definitive treatise on all that had happened in fighting terror during Clinton's years in power, while they attacked us again and again. Clinton, his pant legs hiking above his socks to reveal the flesh of his calves, leaning forward and angrily tapping the papers Wallace held in his lap. These were intimidating if slightly unhinged antics from a former President of the United States, but Wallace seemed not to be impressed.

Clinton tried to divert attention from the questions, charging fiercely that he had been lied to, that he thought the interview would be about his work against global warming. He was tricked. Wallace pulled a fast one, Wallace and those evil right wing nasties who never asked the Bushies these questions. Wallace said that he had, but Clinton's eyes were both on fire and slightly glazed.

"I didn't think this would set you off on a tear," Wallace explained. Clinton had become one with his rage.

Clinton did admit to breaking the law regarding to bin Laden, though he was rather proud of it: "I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him." This violates Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12333 which reads: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Clinton did not rescind this order and it was in full effect when he conspired to violate it.

Clinton to Wallace: [A]ll you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s [arguably hype and/or fiction] book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…"

If Clinton were President now, he said, we'd have 20,000 troops in Afghanistan now trying to find and kill bin Laden. He claimed that he had a plan to invade Afghanistan and capture OBL, but that the CIA and the military wouldn't let him do it.

He closed by saying that if Karl Rove were to quit frightening people, the Democrats will win a lot of seats in the House this November. As it stands, with Rove bringing up national security to scare people, the Dems will gain only a few seats.

Wallace: "Thanks for one of the more unusual interviews."

(Go to the FNS web page for streaming vid of the interview. The transcript is here.)

BILL FRIST ON THIS WEEK. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was host George Stephanopoulos's first guest on ABC's This week, and Steph started him out by citing a story that is on the front pages of both this morning's Washington Post (Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight) and the Sunday New York Times (Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat). Frist told Steph that he hadn't read the classified report and so couldn't comment on it. Steph asked why he hadn't seen it, and Frist explained that "it hasn't been presented to us."

Frist explained that the war on terror is more than Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. He pointed out that we had attacks before we invaded Iraq, and he listed all the Clinton (Bill) attacks and 9-11, and no attacks since.

On terrorists and terrorism, Frist told Steph: "I think the movement is growing... the central front is Iraq." It's been with us since 1993, he said, and we can either fight them overseas or at home.

Frist disagreed with "Kennedy," whom he said wanted to run from Iraq. Steph haughtily clarified: "He would call it 'redeployment,' not cutting and running." And to Okinawa we go!

Steph began to obsess about waterboarding. What if, he asked, North Korea were to waterboard a U.S. soldier: could they be prosecuted? Frist wasn't interested in hypotheticals, explaining that the measure agreed to will set specific rules, and we cannot list what can and cannot be done because terrorists will then train against it. He said that there has to be a separate set of rules form those who kill people en masse. Stuck on waterboarding, Steph asked Frist if Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had been waterboarded. He asked Frist if he personally opposed waterboarding.

Frist said that the measure agreed to last week set definitions for the very vague Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

STEPH DOES JERSEY. TW host Stephanopoulos asked New Jersey's Republic Gubernatorial candidate Tom Kean, Jr. about the various issues on which he disagrees with President Bush. Junior said he agrees with Clinton that an immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a bad thing. Steph pushed him on the differences with President Bush, and Kean said he liked the tax cuts. He asked what Bob Menendez had done in the last 14 months. Steph brought up a letter of praise Menendez had received from 9-11 Commission boss Tom Kean, Sr, and junior said his dad sent that form letter to everyone. Kean did promise that he would go to Washington, if elected, and make sure that the every jot and tittle 9-11 Commission recommendations are adopted by the Bushies.

Steph then talked to Menendez who mumbled about the "politics of personal destruction" and called Kean's disagreements with Bush: "A 60 day slight change of convenience."

FTN BECOMES THE JOHN MCCAIN SHOW. Bob Schieffer spoke this morning with Senator John McCain on CBS' Face the Nation. In the studio. John Harris, WashPost political reporter on a book tour, helped Schieffer to ask questions.

Schieffer asked McCain about the Post and Times stories about Iraq helping terrorists. McCain said that he's not on the intelligence committee and knows nothing of the report, but he pointed out that the terrorists didn't need Iraq to recruit to attack us in the past. This means that we have to win in Iraq. Also, he said, if it weren't Iraq as a recruiting tool, it would be somewhere else.

Schieffer said that the Administration had argued that Iraq had made us safer in the war on terror, while our intelligence agencies say the opposite. McCain, while acknowledging that he can't speak for the President, said that the best way to reduce recruitment is to create a free and fair society.

Schieffer read the White House response that they don't comment on such stories and that it wasn't definitive of the entire report. Schieffer figured this meant that the White House wasn't denying it.

Harris argued that the strategy in Iraq was not working. McCain said that the "tactics have been flawed," but that does not mean that we should "therefore plan on leaving."

McCain argued that the National Guard was "strained" and we should "expand the Army and the Marine Corps." Schieffer asked if we can strain the guard more. McCain said that the people in the Guard were incredible, but we should still expand the Army and the Marine Corps.

"We live in a very dangerous world." We need equipment and personnel, "which doesn't mean that we go back to the draft."

McCain argued against waterboarding, extreme hypothermia and sleep deprivation, etc. If the Administration disagrees with his interpretations, they have to publish their own interpretations in the National Register.

He said that they banned "cruel and inhuman treatments." He's "confident" that some things which had been done in the past would be banned. He argued against "extreme stress positions." He argued against. He argued against "prolonged" suffering which might cause serious mental or physical injury.

He said that they didn't define what could be done; rather, they defined what couldn't be done. Harris asked McCain incredulously why he trusts the Administration, when the last time he agreed to something with them, they reneged on it with a signing statement. McCain said that he believes the Administration acted in good faith.

Schieffer said: "This brings us to my question: Should the CIA and the Administration close these secret prisons?" McCain did not offer an answer, but he pointed out that he takes Administration "at their word" that they gained valuable information from nasty people.

After a commercial break, Schieffer asked: "How 'bout this guy, Chavez?" McCain called it "despicable" and argued that the U.N. should not be used in this manner. He thinks Chavez envisions himself as "the next Castro." This is one more reason to confirm John Bolton, he said, as he stands up to the two-bit dictators. He asked his Democrat colleagues not to hold up the nomination. (NOTHING about Linc.)

Schieffer brought up Jerry Falwell's comment about Hillary being better for Republicans in 2008 than Lucifer. Did McCain agree with Falwell comparing Mrs. Clinton to Satan? McCain said that Falwell was joking when he said that.

Schieffer asked McCain when he would make a final decision about seeking the "Democratic... er, Republican nomination."

Harris demanded to know why he would tell people that this Republican Congress deserves to be reelected after their string of failures.

McCain predicted that the Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress.

KING, SPECTER, HARMAN, ON LE. John King in for Blitzer, talking to Arlen Specter and Jane Harman.

He asked Specter whose fault it was that we hadn't caught Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Jane Harman said that the Bushies blew it in Tora Bora and that the Bushies didn't focus on the problem while "bogged down in Iraq." Specter argued that General Franks had argued that OBL was not "isolated in Tora Bora."

King pointed out that an NIE had said that Iraq had made the world safer for terrorists. Harman agreed and said that "every intelligence analyst" who will speak to her tells her that. The Administration is "trying to change the subject," he said, and the policies in Iraq are failing. King asked Specter if the President should be campaigning on America being safer when the NIE said we're not. Remember, he said, it was the same NIE on which he relied when claiming that Iraq had WMD. (Evidently the NIE was wrong in that case.)

Arlen argued that had we known that Saddam did not have WMD before the war started, we probably would not have started that war. He said that if we had had a report which said that invading Iraq would increase terrorism, we would have taken that into consideration.

Harman said that the intelligence is "absolutely clear" that Saddam never spoke to al Qaeda before we invaded.

King told Specter that McCain "had stood up to the President and told him that 'what you're doing is wrong.'" He then cited a Navy JAG in the LA Times yesterday saying that it the detainees would not get a fair trial. (Retired Rear Admiral John Hutson is a member of the lefty Human Rights First organization, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. With the ACLU, they are currently suing Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld for "torture and abuse".)

Specter agued that the agreement takes away the habeas corpus power away from the federal courts, which goes against beloved tradition. He said it has to be changed, as the Constitution allows suspension of habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. We have neither, he argued.

Harman called Specter "a very good lawyer." She said that we cannot trust the White House.

King brought up "domestic eavesdropping" and asked if Specter had sold out on this issue. Harman said that she's had discussions with Specter on this issue which resembled "law school masters classes."

Harman said Specter has been "put in a box."

Specter laughed, said he had not sold out or been put in a box. "I'm not for sale."

CLINTON (BILL) ON MTP. NBC's Meet the Press, and host TIm Russer's attention, were today dominated by Bill Clinton from a Friday interview. Clinton talked about all the money he got in his global initiative conference. Then he said he was "reluctant to talk about the money" because the time committed was valuable.

Russert asked him what was the biggest problem confronting our world. Clinton said it was the "illusion that our differences" were bigger than our human commonality. He spoke of Osama bin Laden and "Dr. al Zawahiri" who convince these poor people that the differences were bigger than the commonalities. In the longer term, Clinton said, global warming was a big problem. It will create "food refugees" and "food and water wars."

Russert asked Clinton what people around the world say about the image of the United States. Clinton said it's a lot bigger than President Bush and Iraq; rather, he said, the problem was that we want "what we want when we want" and don't listen to others. He doesn't think we have any image problems which couldn't be turned around" with a different way of dealing with things. (A Dem President?)

Russert asked Clinton about Colin Powell's complaints about us losing our moral compass. Clinton said we were torturing people and violating the Geneva Convention, and "Colin pointed out that if we get a reputation for torturing people," we put ourselves in jeaopardy.

Russert asked Clinton if he'd outlaw waterboarding, etc. Clinton said he would find out when the "generally accepted definition of the Geneva Convention" is, and he would abide by it.

He was resting the side of his head in his left hand, seated across from a round table from Russert as he was.

Russert asked Clinton if we could have used the $300-billion we'd spent in Iraq "more efficiently." Clinton said we could have used it to create a more favorable government in Afghanistant, we could have "invested in education in Pakistan," etc. "But what's done is done." If this "Iraq experiment could be made it work," it'll be worth it.

"Iraq was a mistake." That's the Clinton quote Russert put on the screen. Clinton said he thought the error was unilitarerlly invading Iraq before Blix and el Baradei were done with their game. Whether it succeeds or fails, he said, "has more to do with the Iraqis than Americans."

Russert wanted to know how close we were to having to declare Iraq a "lost cause." Clinton said he was "very much distressed" by that Tom Ricks novel, Fiasco.

Clinton thinks it was a "big mistake" to give Americans tax cuts rather than instituting every jot and tittle of the 9-11 Commissions recommendations.

He said that Karl Rove was "very smart" for scaring people and accusing Dems who weren't for every jot and tittle of Republican bills of being soft on terror.

Russert flipped a Clinton quote saying that he isn't sure Hillary could win. Clinton said that he was just being humble; he did the same thing when he was running in 1992. "Actually, my instinct is that she will do quite well." He thinks she will be a "superb President." He doesn't know if she's going to run.

Russert wanted to know if they're ready for a negative campaign.

Clinton said that our campaigns have gotten more negative in the last 25-years, and without mentioning the name, he blamed Ronald Reagan. He doesn't think such a campaign would be "all that effective"

That was that. Clinton got to play wisened elder statesman without being held to account for anything. It was a pleasant interview, most certainly not Tim Russert at his best. This means that Clinton will return to Meet the Press in the future, where he'll probably go where near FOX. Of course, there will be nothing gained by watching.

(Click HERE for the netcast.)
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Have at it!