Crossposted at Unscripted and Unedited
Not sure if any of you caught the gaggle with SNow today but Keith Olbermann today discussed politicizing terror alerts. And mentioned that Snow slipped up today and told the press that Bush had known of this terror story since at least Sunday and approved "Red Alert" yesterday.
Today's press gaggle:
Q But the President, himself, approved the red alert?
MR. SNOW: Correct. It was a recommendation by the Homeland Security Council, by Secretary Chertoff and others.
Q When did he approve it?
MR. SNOW: Yesterday.
Knowing that a major terror plot was going to be thwarted, the entire GOP machine kicked into high gear.
They sent Mehlaman to Ohio give a speech about Democrats being weak on terror.
And then VP Cheney had to say this about the CT Senate race:
. . . Vice President Dick Cheney . . . went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage "al Qaeda types."
"It's an unfortunate development, I think, from the standpoint of the Democratic Party, to see a man like Lieberman pushed aside because of his willingness to support an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy," Mr. Cheney said in a telephone interview with news service reporters. . . .
Mr. Cheney offered warm praise for Mr. Lieberman, who was his opponent for vice president in 2000, though he said he did not want his remarks to be construed as an endorsement of Mr. Lieberman.
He cast Mr. Lieberman's loss in ominous terms, suggesting that it would hearten American terrorist enemies. Terrorists, he said, are "betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."
And today, we learn that President Bush knew about the terror plot well before Cheney and Melhman unleashed on Democrats.
More Snow:
Q: When did the President first learn about this plot and the investigation into it?
MR. SNOW: Again, we're being a little careful on operational details. I think it's safe to say to what I said before, which is he certainly has been extensively briefed over the last few days as the operation that took place became more and more imminent.
Q Was part of that during the teleconference on Sunday?
MR. SNOW: Let's see, what day was Sunday, that was the 6th? Yes. Yes.
So the President and his team knew of this since Sunday the 6th. You see how they plotted to get their weak and retreat anti-Democrats message out?
This was a well planned full course plan to capitalize on this disgusting plot to kill innocent civilians. Not only did they send top surrogates to go on the air and blast Democrats, they created web-ads, drafted talking pts and again attempted to use their last straw: that because Democrats want what 60% of Americans want--to end the war in Iraq, that they somehow give in to terrorists.
More Snow...
Q Did you all know that this was going to break today, yesterday, when there was this massive response to the Connecticut primary, discussion of terrorism, al Qaeda?
MR. SNOW: I don't want to get into operational details. This was not -- however, it was not explicit -- let me put it this way, I don't want to encourage that line of thought. I don't think it's fully accurate, but I also don't want -- I know it's frustrating, but we really don't want to get too much into who knew what, where, when.
As Kos wrote on the front page:
These guys high-five each other when terrorism rears its ugly head.
I wish Americans woke up and realized that this SICK administration only loves power, power, and more power. They will do anything to hold onto their power--even if it's to politicize terrorist acts and benefit from them.
The Republican party of George W. Bush doesn't care about America, or Americans. It only cares about its sick perversion to power, wealth, greed, and deceit.
I'm not questioning the validity of this terror alert in this diary. I am saying what everyone American should be saying or thinking: How fucking disgusting of the Bush administration to politicize it and slander Democrats with it. How fucking UN-AMERICAN.