Clinton plots his comeback

[cal04]

The ex-President's attack on TV's 9/11 drama signals his re-emergence on to the world stage and a bid to protect his legacy

It was the week he came out fighting. Bill Clinton's extraordinary assault on the makers of a dramatised 9/11 documentary which portrayed his administration as failing to prevent the terror attacks, was the most public example of a three-pronged effort - to protect his own presidential legacy, to relaunch himself as a world statesman and to make himself a viable First Gentleman should his wife Hillary achieve her own ambitions on the White House.

The publicity onslaught was launched by Clinton following the screening of the drama-documentary The Path to 9/11, which suggested that he failed to prevent the 11 September terrorist attacks because he was distracted by the Monica Lewinsky affair. The programme's timing could not have been worse for Clinton, coming just as he is trying to rebuild his reputation as a world statesman and while his wife is trying to gather support as the next Democratic presidential candidate .

As well as smearing Clinton the programme, which was shown in the US and Britain to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the attacks, included fictional scenes depicting his senior team dithering over whether to kill the cornered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the late Nineties and implied that their failure to do so left him free to plot the events of 9/11. Clinton, his secretary of state Madeleine Albright, his security chief Sandy Berger and American Airlines have furiously protested at the 'complete fabrications' in the programme - Berger and AA are considering lawsuits - which implied that they let the terrorists slip through their fingers.

The row over the political slant of The Path to 9/11 intensified when it emerged that some of the key programme-makers are politically active in America's conservative and right-wing evangelical movements. The BBC, which screened the programme in the UK, has said it was unaware of this, while the ABC network, which showed it in America, has yet to reveal if it vetted the political credentials of the programme-makers.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1874278,00.html

[davidwparker]

1. I had better see a lawsuit coming out this or this is just cheap talk.

Go, Big Dawg, if you're for real. You still are the NAFTA-signing smuck, but protect whatever positive legacy you earned.

[William769]

5. "whatever positive legacy you earned"

:eyes:

[razors edge]

2. holding my breath.

The BBC, which screened the programme in the UK, has said it was unaware of this, while the ABC network, which showed it in America, has yet to reveal if it vetted the political credentials of the programme-makers.


not.

[tularetom]

3. Did I miss something?

I didn't see any "extraordinary assault". He had his lawyer write a letter and left his cabinet members to fend for themselves. He's a charismatic orator so all he'd have to do is angrily and heatedly denounce this piece o'shit movie in a speech and people would take notice. I think he's afraid of pissing off his new best friend GHW bush and fucking up his chance for a seat on the Carlyle board of directors. I expect Berger and Albright to sue - Clinton, not a chance.

[UTUSN]

4. Carlyle?'bout time it went to its Democratic roots and benefitted Dems

But before progressing, let me digress: Wow, blistering attack on WJC. What's up, doc?

Now: Every time I see a reference to Carlyle-as-evil, I remind that it was a staffer out of the Jimmy CARTER White House who co-founded it, one David RUBENSTEIN. I've never gotten the part where mostly Repukes from the RAYGUN-BUSH gang have populated and benefitted from it. Lamentably, the CARTER team hosted a veritable nest of vipers: Tweety, Pat CADDELL.

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3994.htm

.... In a column posted yesterday on Salon.com, Joe Conason writes: "Preferring to avoid public scrutiny for obvious reasons, executives at the Carlyle Group usually say nothing about their firm's connections with the Bush dynasty. But last April 23, Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein spoke quite frankly about the comfy sinecure he provided to George W. Bush more than a decade ago -- and how useless Bush turned out to be. Whether he knew it or not, Rubenstein's remarks to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association were recorded."

Rubenstein said, "We put (Bush) on the board and (he) spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

Rubenstein continued: "He said, 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things." ....

********UNQUOTE*******