Here we go again - once again, the Bush administration has been called out for its incompetence. And once again, rather than "fight fair" in the media by dealing with facts and logic, they've sunk to smearing their opponent.
What is the saddest part, I think, is that the news media facilitate this sort of behavior. What we need, to make a oblique Star Trek reference, is the Metron challenge. I refer of course to original series episode #19, "Arena" , where a race of highly-powerful aliens (like TNG's Q, but more effete) strand Captain Kirk and a big reptilian alien (called a Gorn) on a space rock to fight each other to the death. To see which of the sparring star-trekkers was superior.
It's very simple. Put Clarke and Condi on an asteroid, and let them battle to the death. At least it would be honorable. (Even better would be to get Condi under oath, so that we can make a fair comparison between her statements and Clarke's.)