60 Minutes tonight, an ex-cabinet member is 10 months early in reporting

[Deja Q]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

Paul O'Neill speaks out.

But Americans have a memory that cuts itself off after 6 weeks.

I wish he'd wait until October to say this.

Maybe he'll say it again or CBS repeats it.

This is gonna be damaging to bushco*...

he says the president was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people.

[cthrumatrix]

1. I like this....because you will have Dean/Clark and others using this as

"demonstrable evidence" that shrub cannot be trusted with your sons/daugters lives...money ...and anything he says.

My dream is that is starts an investigation and grounds for impeachment.

[neebob]

2. I'm so stoked about this

I'm actually going to watch 60 Minutes.

[gristy]

3. Can't do it just before election

Would be perceived as political. Not just perceived, it would be in fact. Just be glad O'Neill is coming out. In spite of the spin that the BFEE "had contingency plans for everything", this will work out fine.

[Mari333]

4. The theatrics of the BFEE are so lame tho

and transparent..the flight suit and turkey stunts were bad circus and laughed at even by many repubs...embarassing..as Pat Robertson keeps opening his mouth, and the Rush crowds keep following that drug addled moron, and the Bill Bennett's of the world are outed for their hypocrisy, theres no keeping the masses completely pacified, I hope, as their jobs are poured overseas, and now, with the new immigrant (cheap labour) policy in place, the bUsh base is eroding..
One can only hope.
Seems like the only thing the BFEE is any good at is killing people to shut them up.

[gristy]

5. bingo

[UTUSN]

6. The Story Was in the "B" Section of My Local Paper

on an inside page, below the horizontal fold, at the vertical fold, with the rest of the half page being an ad.

[Deja Q]

9. The tv and cable stations that showed Ahnold's movies before the recall

were not political then?

A celebrity running for office and all the media does is show his movies to make him look like a big successful guy who can solve all the problems? Even though Governor Groper avoided details and debates, in favor of his big action hero movies?

[tinrobot]

7. Perfect timing, IMHO

Right before the political season truly heats up in the primaries.

Makes O'Neill seem less political, and the nominee can pound this for 10 months straight. It also makes it easier for other people to come out of the woodwork, confirm it, reinforce it, make it unchallenged fact.

We have a new mantra:

"Blind man in a room full of deaf people"

Do not let this phrase die.

[gristy]

8. Here's an AP article from the Chicago Sun Times

Note from where the reporter is submitting his story. AP is squarely in the bush camp on this one.


Saddam a Bush target even before 9/11: O'Neill
January 11, 2004

BY SCOTT LINDLAW

CRAWFORD, Texas -- Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill contends the United States began laying the groundwork for an invasion of Iraq just days after President Bush took office in January 2001 -- more than two years before the start of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview to be aired tonight.

The official American government stance on Iraq, dating to the Clinton administration, was that the United States sought to oust Saddam. (Oh, well, I guess that makes it all well and good then. Thanks, AP! But note that it took the BFEE to transform "oust Saddam" into "Invade Iraq")

But O'Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, said he had qualms about what he asserted was the preemptive nature of the war planning.

"For me, the notion of preemption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap," according to an excerpt of the interview that CBS released Saturday.

The administration has not found evidence that the Iraqi leader was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, but officials have said they had to consider the possibility that Saddam could have undertaken an even larger-scale strike against the United States. (though they had no evidence, they just HAD to consider the friggin POSSIBILITY... Would have been IRRESPONSIBLE not to! Assholes...)

White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not confirm or deny that the White House began Iraq war planning early in Bush's term. But, he said, Saddam "was a threat to peace and stability before September 11th, and even more of a threat after September 11." (Huh??)

"It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving (note focus on faux "results", not on O'Neill claims) on behalf of the American people," McClellan said from the president's ranch in Texas.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-oneill11s1.html