April 9, 2004
The Real Political Risk
Well, Condi got rave reviews in the press, which reflects the fact that television is a medium in which how you look is more important than what you say. But the real political risk of the 9/11 Commission was unrecognized, and is far greater than the "rebut Dick Clarke" objective Rice appears to have achieved.
As Spencer Ackerman writes for the New Republic:
Yesterday's hearings indicate that the 9/11 Commission might issue recommendations that imply the Bush administration still doesn't know how to combat Islamist terrorism three years after the attacks -- thereby robbing Bush of what is perhaps his cardinal political asset.
You can see this in arch-Republican Fred Fielding's observation to Rice that he did not see that the so-called "strutural" reforms the Bush Administration has accomplished to date -- principally the Department of Homeland Security -- are anywhere near enough. So even if the 9/11 Commission does not concude that Bush was asleep at the switch, he's got a lot of exposure here.
Posted by glenn
Comments