Frank Rich wrote scathingly about Michael Chertoff, the homeland security chief who was President Bush's fallback choice for secretary of Homeland Security after Bernard Kerik (who turned out to have somewhat of a criminal background). Chertoff is best remembered for his tragicomic performance during Katrina. He gave his underling, the woeful Brownie, a run for the gold.
It was Mr. Chertoff who announced that the Superdome in New Orleans was "secure" even as the other half of the split screen offered graphic evidence otherwise. It was Mr. Chertoff who told NPR that he had "not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who do not have food and water," even after his fellow citizens had been inundated with such reports all day long.
With Brownie as the designated fall guy, Mr. Chertoff kept his job. Since then he has attracted notice only when lavishing pork on terrorist targets like an Alabama petting zoo while reducing grants to New York City. Though Mr. Chertoff may be the man standing between us and Armageddon, he is seen as a leader of stature only when standing next to his cabinet mate Gonzo Gonzales.
But even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Last week, as the Bush administration frantically tried to counter Republican defections from the war in Iraq, Mr. Chertoff alone departed from the administration's script to talk about the enemy that actually did attack America on 9/11, Al Qaeda, rather than Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the jihad-come-lately gang Mr. Bush is fond of talking about instead. In this White House, the occasional official who strays off script is in all likelihood inadvertently coughing up the truth.
Mr. Chertoff was promptly hammered for it. His admission of "a gut feeling" that America might be vulnerable to a terrorist attack this summer was universally ridiculed as a gaffe. He then tried to retreat, but as he did so, his dire prognosis was confirmed by an intelligence leak. The draft of a new classified threat assessment found that Al Qaeda has regrouped and is stronger than at any time since 2001. Its operational base is the same ungoverned Pakistan wilderness where we've repeatedly failed to capture Osama bin Laden dead or alive for six years. That news doesn't fit with Mr. Rove's political agenda, so Bush tried to dilute it by saying that it wasn't as bad as it would have been without his "war on terrorism". What????
Bush continues to conflate 9-11 with whatever his political agenda is at the moment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey, here is that website i was talking about where i made the extra cash.. later! i'm going to cali next week..check this out
I think we should be careful to show too mush disdain for this administration. Personally, I think that Chertoff's gut feeling is an a cry for help. He is covering his ass. Look at the patterns. Bush is losing the approval of his constituents. What better way to keep everyone in line? FEAR. Another terrorist attack in the USA would put everyone in line again. It's the terrorists damn it. If this strategy worked for the Nazi, then it is good enough for W.
Post a Comment