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good stuff here
As he prepares for Thursday's debate with President Bush, John Kerry might ponder the thoughts of Ken Salazar, Colorado's attorney general and one of the Democrats' best hopes for picking up a U.S. Senate seat this year.
Salazar, a moderate Democrat who faces beer magnate Pete Coors, has won twice statewide by picking up a lot of Republican votes. He unequivocally endorses Kerry but does not always appear when his party's nominee visits this state, which Democrats devoutly hope to turn into a battleground.
Salazar is still curious as to why the Bush administration didn't take the Hart-Rudman report more seriously. He's also curious about what Bush did about that famous Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief that contained warnings of a terrorist attack.
Without making wild charges — he's not that kind of guy — Salazar suggests that Americans should want to know more about "two huge intelligence failures." He's referring to our government's failure to anticipate 9/11 and "the intelligence failure that created the premise for the war in Iraq."
"Nobody," he says, "is being held accountable for these intelligence failures." Isn't this a matter that our president should be asked about in Thursday's debate — especially what actions he took concerning that Aug. 6 memo? Or would such a question be just too terribly impolite? The reluctance to explore what Bush knew before 9/11 and what he did about it stands as one of the great mysteries of American journalism.
Ask Salazar how he would have voted on the 2002 Iraq war resolution and he is unequivocal: He would have voted for it on the basis of the case Bush made. But ask him how he'd vote in light of what we have learned since and his answer is one that Kerry might have considered. "It's not a fair question," Salazar replies, "because the matter would not have even been raised to the Congress if the facts had been known."
Dionne is a columnist for the Washington Post. (postchat@aol.com)
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