Clark blaming Bush for not taking precautions before World Trade Center at

[robbedvoter]

Clark blaming Bush for not taking precautions before World Trade Center attacks

By MICHAEL GOOT
http://www4.fosters.com/News2003/December2003/December_11/News/pol_clark_1211b.asp
Democrat Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH — Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark is blaming President Bush for not taking the necessary precautionary steps to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

The retired four-star general had harsh words for the commander in chief, saying Bush did nothing to address the problems of al-Qaida being an imminent threat.

At a reception on Tuesday with the employees of the Pierce Atwood law office at Pease International Tradeport, Clark said the Bush administration did not heed the warnings from President Clinton’s national security adviser Sandy Berger.

"He gave advice to this administration that the greater threat to national security was Osama bin Laden," he said.

At the time, the Bush administration was preoccupied with trying to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to scrap the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and building a weapons defense system.

Clark said the reason why Bush administration officials are stonewalling attempts to release documents and information about Sept. 11, is it does not want any embarrassing details to come to light.

Being commander in chief is more than prancing around in a flight suit and wearing an military jacket, he said.

[JailBush]

1. I haven't followed Clark that closely. Has he ever came right out and

condemned Bush for sitting on his corporate butt reading a story about a pet goat while his country was under attack? That seems like a rather obvious flaw in performance to me.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Clark has criticized Bush for not doing more

Clark has criticized Bush for not doing more between when he took office and 9/11/2001 to prevent terrorism.

I've never seen Clark crticize Bush for what Bush did on that day itself.

[madrchsod]

2. why that clark!!

he sure knows how to twist ole` georgie`s balls , dam every speech gets closer to him calling out bush on his awol during nam..dam this guy doesn`t pull any punches....

[Military Brat]

3. Saddam out, Now we can all focus on the real issues at hand

Getting our troops home, the treason against Plame, and the 9/11 cover-up. I want to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help us God.

:dem:

[candy331]

5. Keep it up

General Clark Our nation needs you.

[alfredo]

6. tougher statement from him.

Good!

[frank frankly]

7. excellent

really great!!!!

[pa28]

8. He has been on a roll lately.

Clark has the national security credentials to fire away at Bush without being marginalized. Now it seems like he's using it and finding his voice.

[baby_bear]

9. Help me understand why they make policy statements to children

I realize this is not the topic of this thread per se, but it is from the same article. I have been waiting for the Democratic candidates to start talking about environmental issues, because they are ripe for the taking from this anti-environment administration. And I have nothing against 13-year-olds. But what is the reason for making policy proclamations at these particular occasions?

<snip>
While meeting with eighth graders from St. Elizabeth Seton School at the New Castle Public Library later that afternoon, Clark proposed to clamp down on some of the country’s biggest polluters like coal-powered power plants.

He also said he would "put the environmental cop back on the beat" by restoring Environmental Protection Agency inspections and personnel to enforce rules. He would start by stiffening fines for polluters and doubling fines for repeat offenders.

"We need a president who protects the public’s health, not polluter’s pocketbooks," he said.

He would also encourage more innovation to come up with new pollution-control programs. He plans to tell people the truth about the threats to their environment.

</snip>
I sure have no problem with what he said. I just want it spread louder, as often as possible, to all audiences. The debates have not included much at all about the environment, but they should.

s_m

[FrenchieCat]

16. Maybe the reporters

in the room were taking notes? and so when it's written up, the adults can read the statements? Kids may be interested about the invironment more than adults? We are talking about it, so I guess it worked!

[Beam Me Up]

23. Children don't ask knowledgeable questions

and in situations like this at least, they don't talk back.

[eileen_d]

10. Once again, Clark gets the word out

telling the truth that's been missing from the mainstream media. :bounce:

[nolabels]

11. What the heck is Clark talking about, * took plenty of precautions

Planning a whole month vacation before it happens, if that's not planing , I don't know what is!

[imax2268]

12. Don't bring that up around

rethugs...they will go into orbit and say that it was Clintons fault...

[maxr4clark]

13. Not "breaking" news

Please note that this article is from the 11th, not today. This is not a politicization of the news in Iraq--not by Clark, anyway.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

14. GREAT line:"more than prancing around in a flight suit and wearing a ...

SO COOOL !
Way ta go Clark !!
Hope he shows up that quack for just what he is--a sorry ass poser with a lie for just about everything.
Bush is a wimp.
Wouldn't he hate to have to run against a real military guy !

Hope to see DEAN/CLARK, CLARK/DEAN ticket !!
Yeahhh !

[FrenchieCat]

17. Clark said

xnay to VP for Dean....Haven't you heard?

salon.com
http://tinyurl.com/z9tg
Clark: Howard Dean can't win
Wesley Clark says Dean lacks national security credibility -- and throws cold water on the idea of a Dean-Clark dream ticket
--------------
With the presidential campaign of Howard Dean building strong momentum even before the primary elections, the idea has returned to fashion in Democratic political circles that retired Gen. Wesley Clark is in the race primarily to become Dean's running mate. As a hypothetical scenario, it makes good sense: Dean is a charismatic former governor from New England with strong progressive backing, but he lacks foreign policy experience; Clark is an accomplished warrior who has negotiated on behalf of America and its allies at the highest international levels, and he is expected to have strong appeal in more conservative Southern and Western states.

nd so, the thinking goes, Howard Dean and Wes Clark would make a Democratic dream date in November 2004.

But just 48 hours before before the capture of Saddam Hussein outside of Tikrit, Clark made his strongest statement to date about why a Dean-Clark ticket is a bad idea. Clark, who says that he's uniquely qualified to go "toe-to-toe" with President Bush on security issues in 2004, said that whether he's on the ticket or not, the Democrats can't win with Dean as their presidential candidate.

"I don't think the Democratic Party can win without carrying a heavy experience in national security affairs into the campaign," he told Salon in a phone interview last week. "And that experience can't be in a vice president."

[aquart]

15. Go, Wesley!

See, this is what I like: attacking George instead of each other.

[FrenchieCat]

18. Oops....

He's not attacking Dean in that article I just posted...just telling it like it is.

So for those Dean/Clark people......Get out of the way, there's water being thrown your way.

[Jim Sagle]

19. So we can forget about Clark altogether. Yee hah!

:thumbsup:

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Good for Clark

Put the focus on the real problem. It's about time.

[Isere]

21. This is superb! Go, Wes!

Excellent news to wake up to this morning. Keep it up, Wes! Now I'm hearing the talk I have been waiting for! If the other candidates had any sense they would be pounding Bushit on these same points.

[grannylib]

22. He got a lot of air time yesterday re: Saddam's capture; he handled it

all really well from what I saw; great exposure

[Moderator]

24. robbedvoter

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


DU Moderator

[rumguy]

25. Clark's da man!

I want him to chew and spit out little frat boy puss Bush.

Clark's a real scholar, a real hero, and a real man. Bush is a fraudulent phony.

[Voltaire99]

26. Long, long overdue criticism of Bush - Dems dropped ball on this one

Clark is perfectly right about this.

We might have a very different America right now if two things had occurred.

1) The Bush admin had listened to the painfully urgent cries of the bipartisan panel on terrorism whose report was summarily set aside in the months after Bush's appointment to the White House. In fact, one of the panel's co-chairs, Gary Hart, was still pleading for an audience only days before 9/11.

2) The Democrats had not collapsed in the wake of 9/11, quickly offering up both legal capitulation (Patriot Act, authorization for war on Afghanistan and Iraq) and rhetorical gifts ("The President is doing a good job in the war on terrorism").

The first failure was criminal. The second was a kind of surrender when the nation most needed an opposition party to check our headlong rush to war and our evisceration of civil liberties.

There may still be time to repair our nation. To that end it would be a very good thing if some of the quislings in the Democratic Party were to be more forthright about Bush's failures and less eager to assist them.