Or so says Condi Rice. Just for reference,
here is a Reuters piece about Richard Clarke's accusations.
The counter attack has been on all fronts. In print, over the air, and on the net. Stand-up comic, er, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan had this to say.
"This is Dick Clarke's 'American Grandstand.' He just keeps changing the tune."
Har har, Scott. Nice play on words.
But then he follows more seriously with:
"Why did he wait till the beginning of a presidential campaign?" McClellan said. "Clearly, this is more about politics and a book promotion than it is about policy."
I have to say, who cares about the book promotion. Clarke clearly has some important things to say.
The Bush administration has a very large and very powerful PR machine. They were able to keep a lid on dissidence from the time they took office until about the end of last year. The wheels really began to fall off the cart in January with Paul O'Neill's interview/book. The conservative bandwagon had the same response back then. "He's promoting a book. He's just sour grapes. He was out of the loop." Then they lob the ol' "why'd he wait until election year?"
Here's the reason. In this day and age of 24/7 disposable news, it makes a difference when stories come out. It's sad to say, but most American's would forget what Richard Clarke has to say if not released in an atmosphere that gets it repeated airplay.
Here's my favorite, although incorrect, sentence in the Reuters piece.
Bush's leadership on security and his war against terrorism is a main plank of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.
Change "a" to "the" and you have the administration's main problem with the likes of Clarke, O'Neill, and Joe Wilson. Take away the "war image" thing and it all falls out from under them.