NYT: Clinton aides attack Kean's motives; Clinton has spoken with Iger

[DeepModem Mom]

Passions Flare as Broadcast of 9/11 Mini-Series Nears
By PATRICK HEALY and JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 8, 2006

Under growing pressure from Democrats and aides to former President Bill Clinton, ABC is re-evaluating and in some cases re-editing crucial scenes in its new mini-series “The Path to 9/11” to soften its portrait of the Clinton administration’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden, according to people involved in the project.

Among the changes, ABC is altering one scene in which an actor playing Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser, abruptly hangs up on a C.I.A. officer during a critical moment in a military operation, according to Thomas H. Kean, a consultant on the ABC project and co-chairman of the federal Sept. 11 commission.

Mr. Berger has said that the scene is a fiction, and Mr. Kean, in an interview, said that he believed Mr. Berger was correct and that ABC was making appropriate changes.

The reassessment came as two Clinton aides mounted an unusual attack last night on the motives of Mr. Kean, a Republican and a former governor of New Jersey. In a letter to Mr. Kean, the two aides, Bruce R. Lindsey and Douglas Band, wrote that his defense of the mini-series “is destroying the bipartisan aura of the 9/11 Commission,” on whose findings the project is partly based. They asserted that Mr. Kean was driven by payments from ABC or his own partisan politics.

Mr. Kean, who called Mr. Clinton a good friend, said it was outrageous to suggest he was being swayed by money or politics, and added that any fee he received would be donated to charity....Mr. Kean said he was surprised by the outcry, since most of the critics have not seen the film. He said Mr. Clinton had spoken directly to Mr. Iger last Friday; Clinton aides declined to comment....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/washington/08film.html

[fooj]

1. Honorable statesman, my ass.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Kean must be suffering from some sort of mental illness.

A man of his stature wouldn't normally get involved in a cheap scam deal like that movie. Does he have an addiction problem?

[otohara]

4. It's Called RPDSLS

Republican post dramatic stress the lies syndrome

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. No, I think that's being charitable.

He looks sick in the head, like somebody clubbed him. Nobody else on that committee would have touched the stupid freeper movie with a 10
foot pole. The man needs help, if he comes to and realizes what he has done done he might jump off a bridge or something.

[sandnsea]

11. He has a son running for senate

I'm sure he hoped for a broad smear against Democrats as a whole that would help catapult his son into office. What he hoped for from there is anybody's guess. Clinton plays his fair share of partian politics in support of Hillary, as do most of those on the 9/11 Commission. There are very few politicians who aren't above partisan hackery.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. A rational person would weight the cost/benefits of involvement

in a "project" like that. It's telling that he's the only one of the 9/11 people to endorse it. I think it goes beyond the son, I think he has some really big problems.

[sandnsea]

16. Why would he think there would be a cost?

Everything the right has put out into the public has been gobbled up like a Christmas cobbler for 25 years and counting. The 9/11 Commission report was so much whitewash and bullshit as it was, and they knew it. They've already said they knew the military lied to them. Why would Tom Kean expect anything different from this movie? Trash Clinton, praise Bush. It's worked every time before. He didn't expect any backlash because he miscalculated where the media is with the Iraq war and Bush right now. I'm still not even sure that we'll be able to correct the distortions of this 'docudrama', so Kean may come out just fine, before it's all over. Just doing his part for the GOP, just like they all do. Look at what happened to the bunch on the Warren Commission, Ford became President for chrissake. The Bushies do pay back nicely when you cover their ass for them.

[The_Casual_Observer]

20. You are probably right. I haven't yet come to terms with the fact

that the USA is populated with brain dead shit for brains. They will watch this thing and be renewed in their faith in jesus, gdubbya and kean jr.

[sandnsea]

24. Spoke to an ooold family friend last week

Friends of my parents, he called to tell me he had to put his wife in an Alzheimer's facility. And that his grandson had joined the Marines which led to political talk. I did listen to a minute or two of "fight 'em over there" and then couldn't take it anymore... oh my god *Friend* I hate George Bush. Well he busted up and laughing and said he knew I did - but he's sticking with the shit for brains crowd. Know what really killed me? When he said "We haven't had a good President since Kennedy."

:wtf:

I don't know how to get through to some of these people. But I can guarantee you he will be watching that movie.

[Gloria]

3. His RW son is running for NJ Senate...this could get his base drooling...

Kean is up to his ass in oil ties...he's no statesman. If he was really "a good friend" of Clinton's he wouldn't have defended this crap with that bullshit about "most critics not having seen the film"....yeah, only the 900 RW bloggers, etc have seen it....all good friends of Clinton.

[Goat or Panic]

5. I'll believe it when I see it

"Mr. Kean, who called Mr. Clinton a good friend, said it was outrageous to suggest he was being swayed by money or politics, and added that any fee he received would be donated to charity"

Is Kean saying that he hasn't been paid yet? Fool shoulda gotten paid up front. Unless he's just lying, but that couldn't be the case.:eyes:

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. It was cash. And it's already been spent.

[Goat or Panic]

9. Just like his soul.

:evilgrin:

[calimary]

19. Wow, he calls Clinton a good friend. Why would someone

knife a good friend in the back like this - and in such a public forum?

Well, mr. kean, as they say about aging, you get the face you deserve...

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Which lie is a better lie?

The key words here are "...destroying the bipartisan aura of the 9/11 Commission."

And what an aura is was.

[Erika]

10. Kean is another bushbot who sold out to politics n/t

[eviltwin2525]

12. the reason!

The REASON "most of the critics have not seen the film" is that the Disney WHORES have ONLY shown it to Limp-balls and company.

[cybildisobedience]

28. I know --

why aren't they pounding on that -- we haven't seen it because you won't show it to us!!

[cboy4]

13. Kean is out of his mind to throw the credibility of the 9/11 Commission

Report under the bus to stand behind some idiotic docudrama.

Why would he even come within three thousand miles of a project that admits to be fictional?

His work and everyone else's work with the commission will be nullified by Hollywood sensation.

He is evidently bat shit crazy!!!!

edit-spelling

[JackRiddler]

15. The credibility of The 9/11 Commission Report?

This was an insider "bipartisan" prostitution, front to back.

[cboy4]

18. I'm talking about credibility from their point of view. If you work on

a project you believe is impartial and important, why would you risk it all.....if you really believe in your work??

That's my point....if I were on the commission, I would have nothing to do with this piece of shit on ABC.

[EFerrari]

21. It was theater. He's just taken it one step further

into a different venue. The progression makes perfect sense.

[kerstin]

22. Thank you.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

17. He has ruined his reputation - they had become heros to a lot of people

undeserved - as we all know but they were being treated as some sort of saints. So much for that.

[kerstin]

23. Heroes? Saints? To whom? Certainly not the families. n/t

[Ignacio Upton]

26. "Watch Path to 9/11, and vote Kean Jr. for Senate!"

That's what he's doing, besides trying to profit from it. If I were Menendez I would run an ads attacking Kean Sr.'s support for this POS movie. Menendez should take a page from Karl Rove's playbook and attack his opponent's strengh. In this case, Kean Jr.'s strengh is that his father is a "respectable" figure.

[WinkyDink]

25. "to soften its portrait of the Clinton administration’s pursuit of

Osama bin Laden."
NO!! To portray the TRUTH.
The NYT makes it sound like Democrats merely want THEIR propaganda given equal time.

[DeepModem Mom]

27. a.m. kick

[Raffi Ella]

29. with all the facts we have surrounnding

the backing,wiritng and consulting of this film there is no mistaking the motives behind it.

[Straight Shooter]

30. Ben Veniste had the audacity to call Tom Kean "a great American"

:wtf:

I almost fell out of my chair.

This was on Countdown a couple nights ago. It can probably be found on Crooks & Liars web site archives.

With that introduction, Veniste essentially deflected any consequential criticism of Kean as he continued in his soporific voice and pointed out the errors in The Path. It was the most milquetoast dressing down I've ever heard. He really did us no favors.

By the way, I wonder what Kean's definition of "charity" is.