I THINK THAT CONDI RICE SHOULD TESTIFY, in spite of the Administration's reasonable concerns, which all Administrations have, about that sort of thing. But when she testifies, I think she should open with this:

This administration came into office to discover that al Qaeda had been allowed to grow into a full-blown menace. It lost six precious weeks to the Florida recount � and then weeks after Inauguration Day to the go-slow confirmation procedures of a 50-50 Senate. As late as the summer of 2001, pitifully few of Bush�s own people had taken their jobs at State, Defense, and the NSC. Then it was hit by 9/11. And now, now the same people who allowed al Qaeda to grow up, who delayed the staffing of the administration, who did nothing when it was their turn to act, who said nothing when they could have spoken in advance of the attack � these same people accuse George Bush of doing too little? There�s a long answer to give folks like that � and also a short one. And the short one is: How dare you?

(He has more.)

However, I heard on the radio, Terry Moran say, "on this issue, too, Mr. Bush caved." Argh. I wish Bush was as good with the domestic terrorists, uh, Democrats, as he is with foreign ones. Well, Condi will eat Clarke for lunch.

NYFD survivors comment on Clarke.

Roger L. Simon asks: "What is a counter-terrorism expert?"

Clarke v. Clarke.

Howard Veit:

Hearing hypocrisy.......Congress had passed laws forbidding the exchange of info between FBI and CIA; the Congress had passed laws forbidding the FBI to surf the internet; the Congress had passed laws forbidding any agent of anything to so much as enter a public meeting of a "religious" group, including Muslims, Nation of Islam or any other pretenders; the Congress was responsible for the "sanitized only" spies we could employ. So this gang of incompetents is doing everything to focus on the executive branch as the people "responsible" for 9/11 when they were more than just a little "responsible". Just remember this: the government bureaucrats are the permanent government and the President is just Christmas help. These unionized government employees are 95% registered Democrats. Clarke himself while a registered Republican always donated to Democrats, an aparatchik who knew that a registered Republican would have more chance for advancement in the counter-terrorism field. And it's all FOX's fault for releasing the prior Clarke data, stuff that all the Congressional reps knew and many Democratic news(???) people knew and wanted kept under wraps.

Argh. I spent 90 minutes downloading a Real update, only to have it want to download it again. Forget it. I suppose it's another Microslosh trick to get me to use MSreader instead.

Comment at Polipundit:

I happened upon the Cavett show last night while channel surfing and was sickened by the thought that Kerry could actually become President. I wish this show would be broadcast on network television in its entirety every day from now 'til November. I didn't realize Kerry could be any more pompous, but he actually was at 27 years old.

Opinion Journal did a poll of soldiers to see if they were offended by the Democrat's outrage du jour, which would be Bush's WMD joke. The first three hated it, the rest, including soldiers in country, liked it.

I'm an Air Force officer who served in the invasion of Panama and both gulf wars. I loved Bush's jokes about not finding the WMDs. He is the best commander in chief I've served under in 20 years. And for the record, the Iraqi people ran out and thanked us for liberating them every time we went off post. I traveled all over the country April through July 2003.
...
We service families are generally offended by the left's actually patronizing our son's risks for their political purposes. They do not like the military, and generally think that people who join are losers who can't do anything else and are of lowbrow intelligence. They are consistently wrong but never in doubt. And they operate from a template disconnected from reality and they never update their template.
...
While I do not believe the jokes by Mr. Bush were in poor taste, even if they had been in poor taste they would have been preferable an appearance on the Senate floor for the purpose of leveling false accusations of war crimes against American service members. Of course, if I had wasted my youth hanging out with Jane Fonda, I would probably be dour and humorless as well.
...
My cousin and best friend are in Iraq, proud of the fact that they have liberated the Iraqis from a tyrant and are part of the reconstruction. Bush can joke all he wants about WMDs. The troops who have liberated Iraq know three things: that Saddam had to go, WMD or not; that the world is better off without Saddam; and that President Bush respects them a lot more than Kerry ever did, or will.

I thought it was fine.

Kerry's Other War Record.

Mickey Kaus:

Senator Kerry's campaign got a boost yesterday with the news that the candidate would undergo elective shoulder surgery and be unable to campaign for four days while he recovers.

Maybe the Republicans should insist Kerry stick around. He does better while he's gone. To know him is to hate him.

RIP Alistair Cooke.