Debate Grows Over Bush's Handling of Terror Threat(Sen Graham backs Clarke

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/politics/trail/22TRAIL-CLARKE.html?hp

Debate Grows Over Bush's Handling of Terror Threat
By CARL HULSE Published: March 22, 2004


The accusations by Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism specialist, that the Bush administration failed to take the threat of Al Qaeda seriously before Sept. 11 overtook other campaign developments on Sunday and promised to reverberate this week when the Sept. 11 commission conducts a public hearing.<snip>
But Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, who is a former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, barely let Mr. Clarke's appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" end before he issued a scathing statement about the administration's record on terror.

"The facts are that within six months of the first bombs falling on Afghanistan, this administration was diverting military and intelligence resources to its planned war in Iraq, which allowed Al Qaeda to regenerate," said Mr. Graham, who was one of the first lawmakers to label the war with Iraq a distraction from the fight against terror. "As the people of Indonesia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and most recently Spain have learned painfully well, this president failed to execute the real war on terrorism."<snip>

"I am much more concerned about the safety of my granddaughter in school here in Washington because of Al Qaeda than I am with 10 Saddam Husseins," Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on ABC. "And we took our eye off the ball because of a preoccupation with Iraq."<snip>

[papau]

1. Why is Joe acting like a Bush spokesperson?

But his Democratic colleague, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, said on Fox that he saw "no basis" for the accusation that the administration was too focused on Iraq in the wake of Sept. 11. "I think we've got to be careful to speak facts and not rhetoric and not to go about what happened in the past so totally that we divide ourselves," he said.<snip>

[underpants]

3. Joe just lost a lot of respect from me, just kidding that isn't impossible

Suck a** mule

[indepat]

2. Those fine senators seem to forget W receives divine guidance

[lancdem]

4. I thought some posters here said Biden stuck up for Bush

Not in this article. I like his quote.

[papau]

5. The media has zero memory if it reflects poorly on Bush -the quotes below

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'"
- G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

contrasted with THESE

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)

[Palacsinta]

6. Joe Biden's quote really resonated with me............

............that gnawing anxiety that I feel when I think about my grandchildren and their safety.

[Moderator]

7. Please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=437354