When Richard Clarke goes on 60 Minutes tonight and delivers his bombshell the right is going to respond by blaming Bill Clinton. This is inevitable. The Clenis^TM has always been a favorite target for right wing buck passing. This rebuttal strategy for Clark has been confirmed by "moderate" Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA):
Plenty to Blame for Terror - Republican Lawmaker
A former top U.S. security expert is harshly critical of the Bush administration for failing to act on terror threats before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but a Republican senator said on Sunday the blame reaches back to former Democratic President Bill Clinton. ...
... But appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said there were many to blame for the failures, going back to the Clinton administration in which Clarke also had a top role as counter-terrorism coordinator.
"There is a lot of blame to go around in all quarters," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. "I think if we had put all of the factors together in advance ... then 9/11 could have been prevented."
What is the proper response by Senator Kerry and all Democrats who wish to send Bush back to Crawford? Well, first, do not quibble by defending Bill Clinton!
Hell, Democrats need to
stop explaining and defending against every malicious and false charge to come out of the mouth's of right wing hacks like Sen. Arlen Specter. If we continue to do this we're always going to be on the defensive. As the last three years have made abundantly clear there is no end to the amount of lies and contortions the right is willing to peddle. We can't get caught playing their game or we'll never get any traction. Instead, let's respond by going on the offensive.
Just ignore them or ridicule them for passing the buck! Point out that they refuse to take responsibility for any of their actions! We don't need to defend Bill Clinton's honor anymore. President Clinton can rebut these charges whenever he wishes. He isn't running for re-election. His name isn't on any ticket. Let President Clinton and his previous administration defend themselves. We have bigger fish to fry.
For the sake of argument, say we concede that Clinton did not do enough to fight terrorism even if we know differently. Say we concede that Bill Clinton's admin could have done a better job. Say we concede this or just ignore the charges, then point out that Bill Clinton is no longer running for office, but that President Bush and his incompetent administration are! If there is plenty of blame to spread around between Bush and Clinton as Sen. Specter suggests, clearly Bush should be the main worry and held accountable for incompetence both before and after 9/11. After all, he is still in office while Bill Clinton is not.
This race is between John Kerry and George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton. Kerry does not deserve any of the supposed blame the right wishes to heap on Clinton. If we let ourselves get sidetracked into explaining/defending Clinton then the right has succeeded in averting the real discussion: George W. Bush does not deserve another 4 years to practice his incompetent foreign policy. He does not deserve another 4 years to repair his shattered credibility. He does not deserve another 4 years because he steadilly ignored repeated warnings about Al Qaeda in the months before 9/11 and then used this horrible tragedy as excuse to attack an irrelevant party instead of going after the real culprits.
Don't get caught on the defensive when George W. Bush is the one who should be explaining himself.