cheese and rice
10/04/06 06:29
Republican
congressman Mark Foley of Florida abruptly resigned
last Friday and ended his re-election campaign amid
reports of his having sent “inappropriate” e-mails
and instant messages to teenage male congressional
pages. The media, sensing a cover-up, and knowing
there is obviously a lot more to this story, has been
digging hard and making some headway. The Republican
leadership has circled the wagons and is now in full
damage control mode. They are already starting to
spin the story in the Foley-as-victim direction. You
see, he’s an alcoholic. Yeah, that’s it. And he was
molested as a child too, the poor man. And now he’s
gay (yet another closeted, conservative self-hater),
so if the left says anything bad about him, well
that’s just hypocritical gay-bashing, and we should
refrain from passing judgement and just move on, etc.
etc. Look! Over there! Terrorists! They want to kill
you and eat your babies! And you know the liberal
left would just hand those babies over to be eaten,
but we’ll protect you. Just keep voting Republican
and don’t worry your little head. Sit down and relax,
watch a little reality television. Feh.
But that’s not what I came to sermonize about today. Amidst the Foley feeding frenzy, I almost missed a good Condaleeza Rice story. The New York Times and the Washington Post are both reporting that on July 10th, 2001 then-CIA director George Tenet strongly warned Condi (then-National Security Adviser) that al-Qaida was planning an attack in the near future. Condi is currently using the Reagan defense. She doesn’t even recall the meeting, let alone what was discussed.
What’s interesting about this is the fact that the 9/11 Commission apparently knew about this meeting, but didn’t include it in it’s final report. I wonder why that is? When one panelist from the commission (Democrat Richard Ben-Veniste) was asked about the meeting, he at first claimed that the panel had not been told of it. He later admitted that, in fact, George Tenet had re-created the briefing for himself and panel executive director Phillip Zelikow in January, 2004, but referred any further questions on the matter to Zelikow, who has yet to comment. Guess what Zelikow did before joining the 9/11 commission? He worked for National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice. Guess what he does now? He’s a top aid for Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice. I’m gonna get back to banging my head on the wall now.
But that’s not what I came to sermonize about today. Amidst the Foley feeding frenzy, I almost missed a good Condaleeza Rice story. The New York Times and the Washington Post are both reporting that on July 10th, 2001 then-CIA director George Tenet strongly warned Condi (then-National Security Adviser) that al-Qaida was planning an attack in the near future. Condi is currently using the Reagan defense. She doesn’t even recall the meeting, let alone what was discussed.
What’s interesting about this is the fact that the 9/11 Commission apparently knew about this meeting, but didn’t include it in it’s final report. I wonder why that is? When one panelist from the commission (Democrat Richard Ben-Veniste) was asked about the meeting, he at first claimed that the panel had not been told of it. He later admitted that, in fact, George Tenet had re-created the briefing for himself and panel executive director Phillip Zelikow in January, 2004, but referred any further questions on the matter to Zelikow, who has yet to comment. Guess what Zelikow did before joining the 9/11 commission? He worked for National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice. Guess what he does now? He’s a top aid for Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice. I’m gonna get back to banging my head on the wall now.
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