Flimsy Clarke smear (WH leaked memo to Fox) is top-linked story on web

[scottxyz]

In an attempt to catch Clarke in a contraction, the White House leaked that Clarke was the author of a "background briefing" PRAISING White House counter-terrorism efforts.

Three things to note about this:

(1) The attempt backfired, because Clarke correctly pointed out that such unattributed briefings are just spin doctoring:

http://billmon.org/archives/001266.html#comments

Thompson made the strategic blunder of nailing his inquisitorial flag to a transcript of a background briefing that Clarke gave in the summer of 2002, which was leaked to Fox News by the White House....

In that briefing, Clarke ... lauded the administration's conduct of the war against terrorism....

But the ploy backfired on Big Jim after Clarke refused to play the role of evasive double talker.... The briefing, Clarke replied, was simply an exercise in spin doctoring ... as he had been instructed to do by his political superiors....


(2) The White House is up to its Plame games of releasing names it promised it would never release:

http://corrente.blogspot.com/2004_03_21_corrente_archive.html#108018718228239537

Bob Kerrey: And all of us that have provided background briefings for the press before should beware. Because they violated a serious trust.


(3) This flimsy attempt to discredit Clarke appears to be the best they can come up with against him: it's the top-linked story on the web right now (presumably from right-wing bloggers):

http://www.blogdex.net/
http://www.blogdex.net/track.asp?id=9036919 (shows who's linking to it)

{Fox Website} Transcript: Clarke Praises Bush Team in '02

[rumguy]

1. the right wing internet echo chamber

in effect and spreading their poisons

[fearnobush]

2. It's here too... This a great Clarke write up and... it's on MSRNC.

Back at the hearing, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson, a Republican member of the commission, took up the cause, waving the Fox News transcript with one hand and Clarke's critical book in the other. "Which is true?" Thompson demanded, folding his arms and glowering down at the witness.

Clarke, appearing unfazed by the apparent contradiction between his current criticism and previous praise, spoke to Thompson as if addressing a slow student.

"I was asked to highlight the positive aspects of what the administration had done, and to minimize the negative aspects of what the administration had done," he explained. "I've done it for several presidents."

'A question of politics'
With each effort by Thompson to highlight Clarke's inconsistency -- "the policy on Uzbekistan, was it changed?" -- Clarke tutored the commissioner about the obligations of a White House aide. Thompson, who had far exceeded his allotted time, frowned contemptuously. "I think a lot of things beyond the tenor and the tone bother me about this," he said. During a second round of questioning, Thompson returned to the subject, questioning Clarke's "standard of candor and morality."

"I don't think it's a question of morality at all; I think it's a question of politics," Clarke snapped.

Thompson had to wait for Sept. 11 victims' relatives in the gallery to stop applauding before he pleaded ignorance of the ways of Washington. "I'm from the Midwest, so I think I'll leave it there," he said. Moments later, Thompson left the hearing room and did not return.

It was a masterful bit of showmanship by the former bureaucrat who became a household name in the past week with his charges about Bush. Though more prominent personalities testified in the commission's two-day public hearings, the longtime foreign policy bureaucrat stole the show.

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4596317/>

[Leilani]

3. Excellent story by Dana Millbank

in the Washington Post, & linked to MSNBC.

I watched Clarke's testimony today, I've read all of the accounts, & this is the fairest & most accurate story I've read.