[Dialogue] "You Did Your Nice Little Conservative Hit Job On Me."

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 by The Nation
<http://www.thenation.com>  

"You Did Your Nice Little Conservative Hit Job On Me." 

by John Nichols 

 

Clinton used an appearance with "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace to
challenge the lies of the Bush administration and its media acolytes. The
interview, which was broadcast over the weekend, got to the heart of what's
wrong not with the Bush presidency but with a media that covers that
presidency from the on-bended-knee position. 

Clinton recognized that Wallace, one of the more competent members of the
Fox team, was under pressure to mouth the Republican talking points that the
network uses as its reference points. And the former president pounced on
that vulnerability. 

When Wallace started in on the "Why didn't you do more to put Bin Laden and
al Qaeda out of business when you were President?" line of questioning,
Clinton leapt. 

"Okay, let's talk about it," the former president began. "I will answer all
of those things on the merits, but I want to talk about the context (in)
which this (discussion) arises. I'm being asked this on the FOX network. ABC
just had a right-wing conservative (program) on "The Path to 9/11" falsely
claim that it was. based on the 911 Commission Report with three things
asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission
Report. I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans
who now say that I didn't do enough claimed (in the 1990s) that I was
obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush's neocons claimed that I was
too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn't have a single meeting
about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the
right-wingers who now say that I didn't do enough said (then) that I did too
much. Same people." 

By now, Wallace was sputtering: "I understand...," "with respect, if I may,
instead of...," "But Mr. President..." 

But Clinton was on a roll. 

Despite Wallace's stumbling attempts to interrupt him, Clinton went
year-by-year, incident-by-incident, initiative-by-initiative through his
anti-terror efforts. 

"I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill (bin Laden),"
the former president explained. "The CIA was run by George Tenet, who
President Bush gave the Medal of Freedom to and said he did a good job. The
country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came to
office. If you can criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for
this: after the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan,
overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full scale attack/search for Bin Laden.
But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got (only) after 9/11.
The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that Bin Laden was responsible while
I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send
a few hundred Special Forces in helicopters and refuel at night. Even the
9/11 Commission didn't (think we should have done) that. Now the 9/11
Commission was a political document, too? All I'm asking is if anybody wants
to say I didn't do enough, you read (former National Security Advisor)
Richard Clarke's book." 

Wallace finally asked: "Do you think you did enough, sir?" 

Clinton replied: "No, because I didn't get him." 

Wallace chirped, "Right." 

Clinton countered, "But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and
some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They
ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn't. I
tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive
anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country: Dick Clarke. So you
did FOX's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit
job on me. But what I want to know. 

Stung, Wallace was again interrupting. But Clinton held firm. "I want to
know how many people in the Bush administration you've asked this question
of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked 'Why
didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many you asked
'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?' I want to know." 

"We ask plenty of questions of." sputtered Wallace. 

"Tell the truth." Clinton shot back, before revealing that he had Wallace's
number. 

"You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism
from your viewers because (Fox owner) Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot
of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on Climate Change. And
you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time
talking about (climate change.) You said you'd spend half the time talking
about what we did out there to raise $7 billion plus over three days from
215 different commitments. And you don't care." 

Truer words have rarely been spoken on a nationally-televised "news"
program. 

When a beaten Wallace tried to cover for himself - ". all I can say is, I'm
asking you in good faith because it's on people's minds, sir. And I wasn't."
- Clinton nailed him: "There's a reason it's on people's minds. That's the
point I'm trying to make. There's a reason it's on people's minds because
they've done a serious disinformation campaign to create that impression." 

Love Bill Clinton or hate him, but understand that his appearance on Fox New
Sunday was one of those rare moments in recent American history when a
target of our drive-by media shot back. 

C Copyright 2006 The Nation 

###

 

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