WP: 9/11 Panel's Findings Vault Bush Credibility To Campaign Forefront

[kskiska]

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 20, 2004; Page A01

The White House's swift and sustained reaction last week to the preliminary findings of the Sept. 11, 2001, commission showed the potential threat the 10-member panel poses to President Bush's reelection prospects.

After the commission staff released its findings Wednesday that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda -- challenging an assertion Bush and Vice President Cheney have made for the past two years -- Bush declared again that there was, in fact, a relationship.

Democratic and Republican strategists agree that many details of the controversy do not pose a grave threat to Bush's reelection chances.

The significance, rather, is whether Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), can use the commission's findings to split the Iraq war from the war on terrorism in the public's mind, and, more broadly, raise doubts about Bush's credibility and competence by building on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the miscalculations about the Iraqi resistance.

(snip)

Late last week, commission leaders invited Cheney to provide intelligence reports that would buttress the White House's insistence that there were close ties between Hussein and al Qaeda, a commission member said. Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton told the New York Times they wanted to see any additional information in the administration's possession after Cheney said Thursday in a television interview that he "probably" knew things about Iraq's ties to terrorists that the commission did not.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54702-2004Jun19.html

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. I thought his credibility was ALREADY at the forefront

After all, he has said on the record that "we have found WMD" - when clearly we haven't, among other egregious lies he's been telling us for over 4 years (the lies started well before his appointment)..

ANYBODY BUT BUSH

Click here for "ANYBODY BUT BUSH", and other fair and balanced yet stunning buttons, magnets and stickers

[Cha]

2. Milbank has been pretty pro

bush and all around WP whore all along,IMO.

And it doesn't really matter what how he spins this...bushisgonnalosein2004.

[grasswire]

3. Dana Milbank...

...is a Skull & Bones member, after all.

[Cha]

4. No shit?!

I've grown to dislike him intensely over these four years for being a member of the whorepress who does not do one iota of investigating and are too afraid they're going to lose their jobs to ask the tough questions..what a sham. I hold them as reponsible as the bushwa for the hijacking of our Country.

[DEMVET-USMC]

5. Um, we ought to stay away from that,Kerry was also member of Skull and

Bones. It`s kind of weird but true. ...Oscar

[grytpype]

6. Read the other WaPo article on LBN...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x633670

The CPA admits Iraq has been a disaster. Everyone knows it. Only the Bushists refuse to admit it.

That, on top of the 9/11 Commission report.

And indictments in the Plame Affair coming soon...

And fricking Torturegate!

Any one of those scandals is enough to destroy a Presidency.

If you think Bush has a PRAYER of reelection, you're crazy. He's toast.

[RedSock]

10. as long as the election is fair

as long as the election is fair, i agree.

toast.

but the question of a fair election is -- sadly -- WAY up in the air.

[whistle]

7. Yes and we also know that there was a relationship between...

...the Bush administration and Saddam. Those photos of Rumsfeld and Saddam meeting and shaking hands in Saddam's palace proves that. BushCo are terrorists also.

[Virginian]

8. But after interrogating Saddam, didn't they find...

Weapons of mass destruction envy?

And then there was that "Weapons of Mass Destruction Program related Activities."

Why do they lie to us? Because they can. The press has given them such a pass.

[wiggs]

9. Careful....something up the old sleeve here

Why would Cheney and Bush make a point of saying that there are connections between AQ and Iraq the day after the 9/11 report says there aren't (in essence)?

Why are they going out on a limb like this? Is there more evidence (fabricated or not) that is going to come out? Would Cheney shoot himself in the foot by hinting at evidence that doesn't exist?

One of my biggest gripes against this administration is the utter incompetence and bungling with respect to almost any topic, any decision, across the board. It is mind-boggling. However, to bluntly contradict the commission without actually having proof or evidence seems foolish or arrogant or inept beyond belief....

...or....perhaps they do have something in their back pocket.

Am I giving them too much credit by thinking they could spring something on the Commission or should I go with my first instinct that the BA level of deceipt and bold-faced arrogance is surreal.

[hang a left]

11. Maybe a year ago I would have agreed with you regarding

their sleeves......but....those 2 scumbags have lied and lied and lied and lied and been caught so many times, at least by us. I don't think they have squat, and they will not be held accountable for these statements.

I swear to gol, it feels more like they want to lose this election. Which really gets my tinfoil going.

[snippy]

12. FIRE THE LIAR

The entire world knows that Bush is the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics.

There is no subject so somber, serious, or shallow that Bush will not lie about it. The only other option is not to lie. And that apparently is something Bush can not do.

For example:

On 9/11 Bush watched on television as the first plane hit the first WTC tower and John McCain has an illegitimate Negro daughter and Bush would veto McCain-Feingold and the yawning boy was not there and was not yawning and besides he was standing some place else and Richard Clarke had complete access to Bush and Rice which proves that Clarke was out of the loop which is Clinton's fault but the White House revealed that Clarke briefed the press on background about Bush fighting terrorism which means that unnamed White House sources may not be identified even when Bush wants to even if they criminally reveal the identity of a covert CIA employee and everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his National Guard service but it was Clinton's fault that Bush did not show up for duty which was after Bush volunteered to go to Viet Nam but before he was no longer required to take a flight physical and about the same time that God ordered him to smite Saddam because the 70 lines of embryonic stem cells and more arsenic in the water and more mercury in the air prove that republican science is better than sound science and the Bush administration did not illegally conspire to illegally reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative which resulted in 2 million new jobs being created because democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans which is why Bush said he would veto the creation of both the Department of Homeland Security and the 9/11 Commission but now claims credit for their creation and the White House is cooperating with the 9/11 Commission which is why the White House withheld documents and called the republicans on the Commission before Clarke testified and why the White House is not coordinating the attacks on the integrity and bipartisanship of the Commission and why Bush and Cheney negotiated with the Commission that the two of them would testfy one time only but never again since the dental xrays prove that Bush spoke with the CIA director everyday and did not ignore either the repeated warnings of the dangers of al Qaeda and Osama or the August 2001 intelligence briefing specifically warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks because the United States is a nation with a mission and that mission is to bring freedom to every single person in the world which will cut the deficit in half if you do not count those parts of the deficit which will increase under Bush which is Clinton's fault but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" which resulted in 2.6 million new jobs being created even though the $400 billion decorative Medicare prescription drug turkey was not labeled $550 billion and was passed without bribery or criminal deception and was not criminally promoted by the Bush administration using taxpayers' money for propaganda purposes which proves that government spending under Bush has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending under Bush which is Clinton's fault just as acts of terrorism have decreased since 9/11 if you do not count the increase in the number of acts of terrorism and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an urgent but not an imminent threat which is Clinton's fault Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the invasion was not planned before Bush took office even though it was the subject of his first national security council meeting in February 2001 and in December 2001 when plans for the invasion were being finalized Bush said he was focused on the military operations in Afghanistan since the aircraft carrier was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough "Mission Accomplished" banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 which is Clinton's fault but everyone who pays income taxes got a tax cut which created 3 million new jobs and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities except for the dead and wounded troops who are being brought home secretly which is Clinton's fault since Bush is the one who hugs the mothers and the widows and the wives and the kids and since Bush does not watch television news he did not know about the republican torture pranks occurring in Iraq until he saw the pictures while watching television news and that is why Bush who will use the jawbone of an ass to force OPEC to open the spigots and who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers which are Clinton's fault wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog.

I would offer other examples of Bush's dishonesty but the heavy rains have loosened the topsoil on my keyboard.

Ridiculing Bush for his compulsive and incessant lying needs to become common.

FIRE THE LIAR