Many sure do miss you, President Clinton

By Mary MacElveen

September 26, 2006

Before I discuss the Fox News interview of former President William Jefferson Clinton and Fox News, Chris Wallace, as I was reading their page while viewing the feed, this statement coming from Bush Press Secretary, Tony Snow caught my eye, "He retorts, you decide," while playing on Fox News slogan, “We report you decide”  He (Snow) said of this interview between former President Clinton and Chris Wallace, "clearly had strong feelings but we're not going to engage."

Tony Snow’s first remark was by far one of the smarmiest statements directed at a former president coming from someone in an appointed position within a current administration.  In all of Clinton’s eight years in office, I do not think I ever remember anyone making such a disparaging remark within his administration of the previous administration.  President Clinton being a stand up person, most likely would have let that person go had they done so.  Just like he never back channeled blamed anyone from the Bush Sr. administration for the first attack on the Twin Towers.  What that should show everyone is accountability coming from President Clinton and not laying the blame on anyone else.  Also a little reminder, that first attack on the Twin Towers happened one month after Clinton took office.  9/11 happened how long after Bush took office? Eight months.

Now to Snow’s second comment in which he said, “we’re not going to engage” and the reason that they do not have anything to engage in is because Osama bin Laden has yet to be captured.  It has been five years now since the worst terrorist attack on American soil in recent history.  Let us again remember what Bush said right after 9/11 that he would capture Osama bin Laden “dead or alive”, he later on stated of bin Laden, “I do not know where he is, he is not important and not our priority”  Yet, America bought into this new era of non-accountability.  Oh sure it is okay with these Neo-conservatives to blame President Clinton, but the person who they should rightly be blaming is Bush.  Nah, they cannot blame one of their own.

Anytime we have heard from bin Laden, the reaction from every single politician should have been, “Bush, where is he?” instead of letting those tapes be used for fear as they were done shortly before the presidential election of 2004.  What should be a learning experience is that throughout America’s history, we have overcome so many devastating events, yet we allowed a Karl Rove production to cower us all?  This is something that we should all think hard on.  Do we allow for fear to lead us, or do we lead ourselves out of fear into hope and empowerment? The choice is ours.

When President Clinton stated concerning the upcoming Mid Term elections, “But on the other hand, this is perfectly predictable: We’re going to win a lot of seats if the American people aren’t afraid. If they’re afraid and we get divided again, then we may only win a few seats.” The psychological response is either a fight for flight syndrome.  Americans should fight and dare not give flight should any unforeseen event occur or if the Neo-conservative Republicans state that Democrats cannot be trusted when it comes to national security.

I suppose that many did feel more secure during the Clinton administration and even Wikipedia states of the first Twin Tower bombing in 1993, “In October 1995, the militant Islamist and blind cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the bombing. In 1998, Ramzi Yousef was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the towers. In all, ten militant Islamist conspirators were convicted for their part in the bombing, each receiving prison sentences of a maximum of 240 years.” If you are angry that they did not get the death penalty, they were tried in New York County and the jury decided life over death. They are both currently spending the rest of their life at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

On April 19^th, 1995 the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building occurred in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  It was just as devastating to see on TV as was 9/11. But, shortly after it occurred, you had President Clinton coming out and speaking to the nation.  He calmed us all and pretty much told us not to leap to any judgments of who committed this act of terrorism and he was correct.  It was perpetrated by a homegrown terrorist named Timothy McVeigh along with his accomplice Terry Nichols.  During the Clinton administration, both McVeigh and Nichols were tried and convicted.  While McVeigh received the death penalty, Nichols did not.  He is currently serving a life sentence at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Another home grown terrorist was arrested on April 3^rd, 1996 and his name is, Theodore Kaczynski also known as the ‘Uni-bomber’.  Currently he too is serving a life sentence at the Supermax prison along with Nichols and the first Twin Tower terrorists. 

I would say that this is an impressive record of the Clinton administration.  In a Newsweek article by, Michael Hirsh, he wrote of Bill Clinton that he “couldn't keep his rage out of public view any longer. Ever since ABC television aired its riveting but risibly fictive docudrama “The Path to 9/11” earlier this month,” what I did not see was the rage he spoke of, but a man defending his record against those that have consistently attacked him.  Now a man that I have seen enraged just recently is Bush when asked of Colin Powell’s change of heart on the war on terrorism.  You could see the venom coming out of him as he said that it was “unacceptable to think”

Within his article, Mr. Hirsh also wrote, “And for the record, the Bush administration barely paid attention to bin Laden before 9/11, as documented by the 9/11 Commission and other inquiries. On Jan. 26, 2001—six days after Bush’s inauguration—an FBI report for the first time conclusively tied the USS Cole bombing in Yemen to Al Qaeda.” How is that for facts?  Barely paid attention and we are supposed to feel secure under this Neo-conservative rule?  Also, the Cole attack happened in October of 2000 shortly before Clinton left office.

As stated by former President Clinton this transcript of the interview, he correctly states, “They (the Bush administration) had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn’t do enough said I did too much — same people.” As far as bin Laden, he stated, “The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify.” Which I think led the Hart/Rudman report calling upon a homeland security agency.  But, as we all know, that report was ignored by the Bush administration and it came out in January of 2001.  Now concerning any creation of a homeland security agency, Bush at first was not in favor of it, but was dragged kicking and screaming for its creation as well as any commission on the 9/11 attacks.

Someone emailed me concerning the many events that the Bush administration has been incompetent in handling such as Katrina, the illegal war in Iraq, not listening to prior warnings concerning 9/11 and many other items.  But, do you know what?  That is up to Bush to answer to the American people, but more importantly it us up to every single American in this era of non-accountability to hold him responsible.

All and all, former President Clinton did a marvelous job in defending his record. I suppose it made many long for those days when one felt actually safe and yes happy.  I noticed that he kept mentioning Richard Clarke in which he said, “I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted.” This proves yet again Bush’s inability to handle any real strategy as evident with the mounting causality rate and his failure at capturing bin Laden.

In closing, I loved when Clinton stated, “So you did Fox’s bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me.” To that I add, it is important for the voters in November to launch their own ‘hit job’ on Bush.  It just may be the first time that he is forced into any sense of accountability to We the People of these United States.  Do not let the GOP Rove our vote.