The Spin Doctor

The spin doc­tor from Mol­ly Ivins

Then there’s the case of Richard Clarke, the top advis­er on counter-ter­ror­ism to both Clin­ton and Bush. In his stun­ning inter­view on “60 Min­utes,” I thought the most chill­ing moment was what he said took place imme­di­ate­ly after 9–11: “Well, Rums­feld was say­ing that we need­ed to bomb Iraq. And we all said, ‘But no, no. Al Qae­da is in Afghanistan.’ And Rums­feld said, ‘There aren’t any good tar­gets in Afghanistan, and there are lots of good tar­gets in Iraq.’ I said, ‘Well, there are lots of good tar­gets in lots of places, but Iraq had noth­ing to do with it.

Clarke said it was as though after Pearl Har­bor, Franklin Roo­sevelt had want­ed to attack Mexico.

Anoth­er Clarke insight, “I blame the entire Bush lead­er­ship for con­tin­u­ing to work on Cold War issues when they (came) back in pow­er in 2001. It was as though they were pre­served in amber from when they left office eight years before.”