Juan Cole has a long, accurate memory.
I expect Ms. Napolitano, an extremely competent civil servant, to take a drubbing on the Sunday talk shows today.So let us look more closely at what precisely the GOP leadership said about the similar shoe bombing of 2001. It is no different from what Napolitano said at its best, and at its worse it was criminal. ...
Bated breath.
... On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid, the 'shoe-bomber,' attempted to detonate explosives on an American airliner. On December 27, Usama Bin Laden issued a new, menacing videotape. How did the Bush administration respond to these dramatic events? How did CNN cover the response?Bush's response was to plant a live oak tree and go for a jog, and follow 'through on his promise to get a little bit of rest and relaxation on this trip down here to Crawford.' CNN reported this as a good thing. Bush also declined to comment on the Bin Laden tape, and CNN helpfully explained this silence as a wise decision not to respond to someone who 'might be dead.'
The Secretary of Defense slipped in a Rumsfeld koan.
As for the then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, his response to the airliner attack and Bin Laden's videotape was to announce that with regard to intelligence reports on Bin Laden's whereabouts, "I've stopped chasing them."Rumsfeld helpfully explained, "We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan or in some other country or dead. And we know of certain knowledge that we don't know which of those happens to be the case."
The trouble with Obama is that he's so factual, sensible and responsive. No poetry. No defensive zen. Just practical measures like going after Al Qaeda.
Finally I wonder whether anyone else has noticed the similarity between the dialogue in "Big Lebowski" and the spacy pronouncements from top figures in the Bush administration.
