khaosworks | Blood in the water (Reply)

Throw The Bitch Out - Maybe The Sharks Will Leave Us Alone

By Mr. Terence Chua, Pitying The Sacrificial Lamb.

Rice to testify in public, under oath
Bush, Cheney also to appear before full panel
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 7:55 p.m. ET March 30, 2004

WASHINGTON - In a reversal, President Bush said Tuesday that he had agreed to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before the Sept. 11 commission to give the nation "a complete picture" of events leading up to the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bush said he and Vice President Dick Cheney also agreed to meet together with the full panel in private, abandoning their earlier insistence that they would meet only with the commission's chairman and vice chairman.

"This commission has been charged with a crucial task,"Bush told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "To prevent future attacks, we must understand the tactics of our enemies."

In a letter to the panel, the White House sought written assurances that Rice's testimony would set no precedent and that no more public testimony from any White House official would be requested.

The commission accepted the terms, saying in its response that "Dr. Rice's appearance before the Commission is in response to the special circumstances presented by the events of September 11 and the Commission's unique mandate."

Standing on principle
Commission member Slade Gorton, a Republican former senator from Washington, said the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States accepted the stipulation that it not call other White House officials because "we hadn't planned to."

“I think the White House would have been better off if it had made the agreements sooner, but I’m delighted,” Gorton said. “I have felt all along that her public testimony would be good for the country.”

The White House and Rice had maintained that requiring a national security adviser to testify under oath would compromise “executive privilege,” which allows a president to exchange ideas freely with an adviser without fearing that they would be made public.

"A president and his advisers, including his advisers for national security affairs, must be able to communicate freely and privately without being compelled to reveal those communications to the legislative branch," Bush said.

"We have observed this principle while also seeking ways for Dr. Rice to testify," he added.

So let's see.

Under public pressure, the White House has agreed to let Condi Rice testify on oath before the 9/11 commission, on the following conditions: that this isn't be taken to be a "precedent", and that nobody else from the White House will be asked to testify - and that they only have one shot at Condi, and can't call her back again.

Am I the only one who's saying, "What the fuck is this kind of chickenshit bargaining?" Not being held as a precedent I can understand, but what is this you only get her to appear once crap? What, she's going to stand up, one of the commissioners is going to ask, "One more thing..." and then Bush and Cheney are going to jump up and down with their (pardon the expression) hair on fire and go, "Uh uh! You had your chance! No takebacks! Nyeah nyeah nyeah!" And Bush and Cheney testifying in private? Why? We already know Cheney has his hand up Bush's ass and that Bush can't put two words together without slurring his words or mentioning, "madman," "nukuler weapons," or "evil." We're grown-ups. We can take it.

That being said, why do I also have the sinking feeling that Rice is being tossed out as a sacrificial lamb? I have this vision (I'm having a vivid imagination day today, so bear with me) of Bush and Cheney in that scene from "Spies Like Us" showing a picture to the Ninjas, with Cheney doing the Chevy Chase role: "This is my sister... you can all have her."

Okay, that was too much recap for a crap line. Sorry. But the feeling remains. Already the Washington Post is reporting today a speech that Rice was supposed to have given on 9/11 that doesn't mention Al Qaeda or Islamic terrorism, but concentrates mainly on missile defense, which was Bush's big thing back then. While this is potentially damaging to the White House's denial that they did see Al Qaeda as an urgent priority, it's probably more damaging to Rice's credibility - which leads me to suspect that the next step, if Rice doesn't put up a good showing, will be to try to claim that it was Rice who dismissed Clarke's concerns and did not pass it up to the President, who of course would have taken Al Qaeda a lot more seriously if Rice, his National Security Advisor, had only come up to him and told him so. But the good Doctor didn't. That incompetent bitch.

Or am I just wearing my tinfoil hat again?