Many people at dKos and elsewhere have posted about the startling incompetence of the Bush Administration's response to Clarke, O'Neill, et al. Several things struck me:
- Karl Rove is not as smart as we feared.
- BushCo is really, really bad at playing defense.
- BushCo has some misplaced Clinton envy.
Remember the "bimbo eruptions"? Clinton's strategy was to deny, smear, deny some more, and it worked. And by the end of it, no one, except for the wingnuts, wanted to hear any more about the Big Dog's sex life. Republicans, frustrated by Clinton's scandal strategy, now seem to have adopted it, denying Clarke's charges, smearing Clarke, and denying the charges some more.
The problem for Bush is, Clinton's strategy worked because a) whether or not the accusations were true was known to only 2 people and b) of the two people, Clinton had a serious advantage in credibility. In shorter, crasser terms, Clinton could fight bimbo eruptions like that because he was fighting against bimbos.
It's not quite the same for Bush, who is fighting against distinguished government employees who are schooled in the ins-and-outs of the Washington media machine and who are making charges that can be verified based on publicly available information.
Long story short, BushCo's "Be Like Bill" attitude when it comes to refuting charges made against the administration may be doomed to fail, something I find to be a delicious irony.