November 2002 Archives

[Excerpted from The Daily Howler]

On November 4, a well-known military man said that the U.S. is losing momentum in the war on terror in Afghanistan. Who made this troubling statement? How about the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?

Three weeks earlier, the head of the CIA had told the Senate that al Qaeda poses the same level of threat to the United States that it posed before September 11.

Then Al Gore explicitly cited Myers and Tenet in an interview basically echoing what they had said.

But when Al Gore speaks, the pundits hear fingernails on the blackboard.

Michael Kelly always gets the spin first.

The unsubtle Gore made...strident but incoherent attacks on President Bush over the handling of the war on terrorism and the economy, and, most recently, with the pronouncement that Gore had “reluctantly come to the conclusion” that the solution to the “impending crisis” in American health care was the “single-payer national health insurance plan”—the idea he savaged his 2000 Democratic primary opponent, Bill Bradley, for supporting.

Kelly’s spin about single-payer is simply wrong. Read more here and here.

But his spin on the war was something much worse—an insult to the American public interest. Gore cited two well-known authorities—the current head of the CIA and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What more do the pundits want?

Brit Hume was next up the food chain. On his Special Report he said:

Let’s take a look at these politically interesting comments that former Vice President Gore has been making…First of all, this is what he says about the situation in Afghanistan. “Now the warlords are back in control, the Taliban is back and for a variety of reasons al Qaeda is back at full strength and Usama bin Laden is back making his threats against the U.S.” That’s Al Gore with the AP yesterday…All right, let’s take these things in turn. Warlords back in control, Taliban back, al Qaeda at full strength, Usama back. What about that?

Mara Liasson quickly embroidered something Gore had said:

Well, if you want to take them one by one, some warlords are back. But the Taliban? I’m a little unclear about that one. I haven’t seen any evidence of the Taliban being back in control. Now, al Qaeda being back at full strength, I think is debatable. Al Qaeda being back in some form, I think that the administration has admitted that. And Usama is back making his threats. I mean if you go through this, some of them are correct, and some of them aren’t.

Of course, Gore hadn’t said that the Taliban was “back in control.” But General Myers had said that Taliban forces were regaining power, and Gore had explicitly cited his comment.

Jeff Birnbaum weighed in next:

Yes, I think that Al Gore is speaking the way Democrats were supposed to have spoken. That is boldly, you know, getting right to the nub of things, saying things strongly. But he’s also saying things that are completely false, which is the problem.

The pundits scratched their heads over Gore’s deeply troubling statements.

Then Fred Barnes jumps in:

I mean, this stuff is mostly false that Gore is saying.

Where did things stand by the end of this session? No one mentioned what Tenet had said. None of the pundits mentioned Myers. But the self-proclaimed all-stars were all deeply troubled by the “completely false” things Gore had said.

Fred Barnes asked:

Here’s the point though, what would Al Gore do?

What would Gore do? Here’s what he’d said to Katie Couric two days earlier. Two days earlier, Gore had explicitly answered Fred’s question. Fred must have been dozing off:

What would I have done differently? I think we did lose focus. First, by refusing to allow the international community to put enough forces into Afghanistan to establish peace and order there. Now the warlords are back in control, the Taliban is back in the country, and al Qaeda is back at the—posing as much of a threat, according to our intelligence agencies, as they did in the weeks leading up to September 11th. I think it was a mistake to allow that to happen. I think we should have been single-minded.

It’s easy to say what Gore would do—but Barnes kept viewers in the dark.

You get two choices as you watch these pundits. First possibility: They may be just as uninformed as they would have you believe.

But there is a second, more likely possibility. These people may know what Tenet has said. They may know all about General Myers. And it may be that Mara, Fred and Jeff understand what Gore has said, too. In short, these people may simply be spinning you blue—deceiving you at a time of great peril.

What species of people behave this way, even at a time of great peril? Barnes, Liasson, Birnbaum, Hume—they are, without question, a “special” breed. The American people deserve to know what Myers and Tenet and Gore have said. Such figures deserve to have their words reported and respected. And, at a time of major peril, great nations will want to discuss such statements.

But over at Fox, they’re spinning you blue. Courtier pundits are bowing to power—and they’re reciting their net’s approved scripts. Myers and Tenet? That was news they could lose. Gore, of course, is always lying.

General Myers’ statement was reported atop front page of the Washington Post on Friday morning, November 8. It was even discussed that evening on Hardball. According to a Nexis search, it has never been mentioned on Fox.

Dan Kennedy in the Boston Phoenix:

Yes, mainstream media such as the New York Times, the network newscasts, and National Public Radio are liberal on cultural issues such as gay rights and reproductive choice. But what Goldberg and his ilk miss is that they are also cautious middle-of-the-roaders on the really big issues, such as the economy and foreign policy. Moreover, the mainstream is liberal, but it is not a tool of the Democratic Party.

In contrast to the conflicted liberal mainstream, the conservative media are openly and nakedly pro-Republican. There is simply nothing like it on the Democratic side.

Simulated attacks on key internet hubs have shown how vulnerable the worldwide network is to disruption by disaster or terrorist action.

This is serious stuff, kids. There are only 13 root servers serving the entire Internet. Take those down and you're looking at a roaring nightmare.

Lou Dobbs, respected business analyst, has seen the shape of the future of Homeland Defense and he ain't impressed.

After months of lectures from politicians on how to run their businesses, corporate executives must be chuckling to themselves.

They're watching Washington policymakers make what will likely be a major organizational misstep of their own - pushing forward a massive, ill-conceived merger that puts many of the failed megadeals of the '90s to shame.

The largest reorganization of the federal government in a half-century is now underway.

Bottom line: at the very time we need more security, we are in danger of having less because this "merger" will create fear, uncertainty and doubt among the bureaucrats.

The genius of the Bush administration has always been that it lowered expectations to a point where they found it easy to succeed.

Not now. The bar has to be set high.

POTUS needs to lead a successful implementation of the idea of "Homeland Security"

First up: Where's the funding?

For example, why aren't we checking more than 2 percent of the cargo containers entering the docks in New Jersey? Because money has not been appropriated for that purpose.

I spoke to a life-long resident of NYC last night and he feels like a sitting duck, MORE THAN A YEAR AFTER 9/11.

What's up with that?

Clearly the Dems and the GOP must share the blame.

So the good news is that GOP has the opportunity and the authority and responsibility now to set it straight.

Can they do it? Can they appropriate the necessary funds to make it real? Will POTUS spend the necessary political capital to get it done? Or is he hoarding it all for his re-election run in 2004?

The next two years will tell the tale.

Peggy Noonan

JFK was very much a man of his time. He was of the Sinatra generation; they got through the Depression, fought the war, and came home too hip for the room.

People think the boomers discovered sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but it was their parents, really--second-generation Americans home from Anzio and the South Pacific, beginning to leave the safety and social embarrassment of their immigrant parents' religion, informed by what they'd been taught as children about World War I and what happened at Versailles, influenced by Scott and Ernest and the lost generation.

Add some Marx and the man in the gray flannel suit, throw in some Vat 69, and some pills. Put that all together, shake it, add a pinch of Freud and pour it out; what you get is party. The greatest generation on Saturday night.

They were a great generation and they were more than that, and less. They created the boomers, the welfare state, the world we live in. They were one rocking group, and JFK was very much of them.

Does U.S. intervention overseas breed terrorism? The Cato Institute thinks it does. You should read their report.

Has POTUS done the same?

Recently, Al Gore "reluctantly" concluded that a single-payer insurance system is the way to go.

Instantly David Frum of NRO trashed Gore here without bothering to check his facts. Perhaps he's like so many other pundits and columnists: his animus toward the former VPOTUS is so bilious and toxic that he can't even listen to the guy without frothing at the mouth.

What. Ever.

The New Republic dismisses Frum's rant here by pointing out that "Frum is not only a conservative but Canadian. And to that particular species there is no phrase more likely to produce a hostile reaction than 'single-payer.' "

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic lays out the case for single-payer insurance here. I don't know if it's the way to go, but it certainly merits a debate -- on the issues, please, and not on the personalities who are advocating it.

Robert Reich and Joe Klein ask that perennial musical question.

William Saletan writes that "the big lesson of this election: The Democratic Party has failed to sell the public a story about how Democrats would fix the economy."

Democratic strategist Stanley Greenberg says that "Democrats can't win [Congress] race by race. You can't expect to run better campaigns, recruit better campaigns, spend more money.... It's Democrats above all who need big ideas, who need to create an election that is about something."

Joe Conason writes that "Democrats would do well to recall the combative stance adopted by the Republicans after losing both houses of Congress and the presidency in 1992. They can begin by examining the real reasons for this narrow but awful defeat, without flinching."

An historic night. I'm surprised that Bush ran the table ("shot the moon" I think I said once before). But he did and it is an historic event. My hat is off to the President. This will loom large in his legacy.

But let's not forget: it's the PEOPLE who have spoken...the bastards.

As far as the Democrats -- it's time to start over, guys. The last two years worth of strategy and tactics got the party to this point so I think it's time for a different plan.

More on this later...In the meantime:

• Terry McAulliffe -- hasta la vista baby.
• Tom Daschle -- ta ta for now.
• Dick Gephardt -- announce for the Presidency
• Al Gore -- give it up
• Bill Clinton -- better luck next time (cause I don't think you're giving up that easily)
• Walter Mondale -- thanks for the memories
• Paul Wellstone -- "you coulda been a contenda"

Some interesting highlights:

• In Ohio 17, Jim Trafficant, convicted felon sitting in a jail cell, gets over 27 thousand votes.
• Arizona 203:Medical Use of Marijuana, defeated
• Florida Amendment 6: Indoor Smoking Restrictions, approved
• Florida Amendment 9:Class Size Reduction, approved
• Montana C-39:Invest Public Funds in Stocks, defeated
• Nevada Question 2:Ban Same-Sex Marriages, approved
• Nevada Question 9:Legalize Marijuana Possession, defeated
• Oregon Measure 27:Labeling of Genetically-Engineered Food, defeated