I realize that the joke doesn't really work. Condi's bit is to take a text that criticizes the administration and claim that it doesn't. My bit was to take a Bush claim and stick a not in front of it. Condi's trick is tougher than mine, and it just goes to show why I will never get a job as spindoctor.
Why didn't Condi just say, "Despite that fact that we could have gotten 60% of Americans to believe it, we never claimed that Saddam and Bin Laden were the same person."
Thank god for Lee Hamilton, at least.
"The word 'control' is new," Hamilton said.
"The president talks in terms of a relationship between the two. The vice president talks in terms of a tie between the two. We talk in terms of contacts between the two," he added.
"All of those words are similar, but clearly relationship and ties suggest more than contacts."
No one here is in the same league as Condi. She is sharp and on the ball. Period.
1. You quote Reuters, good for you.
2. When I link from TheOnion most understand, some don't but most do.
3. Those who do not get it like 'Reuters' like TheOnion but not as poetic.
4. I forget my point, but given Condi, TheOnion or Reuters I pick W followed by Condi.
Condi is very on the ball. W too. Most of W's second tier are very good.
Imagine? A leader delegating real power and responsibility? How so very Reagan.
HOW SO FUCKING WISE? Given the complexities of today.
Did I leave out good management? Or Fucking wise choices since 911?
/sarcasm on/
I have a tough time remembering the lessons of history.
/sarcasm off/
Damn, but this is turning weird. "They meant operational control," says Condi. "No, we didn't," sez 9-11 commission member. Also, I intend that everything I say means something true in my secret private language.
Is it now completely obvious that they're just throwing so much noise into the debate & hoping people get confused?
That's exactly what they're doing. And only blogs, no, only this blog can stop them.
I'm going to bed.
Why didn't Condi just say, "Despite that fact that we could have gotten 60% of Americans to believe it, we never claimed that Saddam and Bin Laden were the same person."
"You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam." – President Bush, 9/25/02
In fairness, wasn't Bush talking about distinguishing them with respect to evil when he said that? I'm too lazy to track down the quote, but I remember thinking that when I read the whole thing.
Also, I just saw Dennis Miller on Leno. What a hack. I'm just saying, is all.
As I recall, it was with respect to the war on terror...looking it up...
"Both of them need to be dealt with," Bush told reporters at the White House. "You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror."
The story is interesting also because Rice is making the "no operational control" distinction there, too. I'll say it again, they sure do choose their words carefully.
More context:
"They're both risks, they're both dangerous. The difference, of course, is that al Qaeda likes to hijack governments. Saddam Hussein is a dictator of a government. Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is, is that al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world."
"Both of them need to be dealt with. The war on terror, you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror. And so it's a comparison that is -- I can't make because I can't distinguish between the two, because they're both equally as bad, and equally as evil, and equally as destructive."