esmaspäev, juuni 21, 2004
Thank You, Bill Safire
I have to say, I'm impressed by today's William Safire column. Or at least the first two-thirds or so of it. Eventually, he drives back into crazytown. But for a moment, he's the most honest conservative commentator in politics.
Instead of blaming the "liberal media" for its coverage of the 9/11 commission's staff report, which the media reported on completely accurately, he understands why there's a disconnect between what commission members are saying and what the report says. And he is quite rightly perplexed by it.
Note, I said "staff report." Ben-Veniste and Lehman made this point on Meet the Press yesterday. The report is the conclusion of the commission staff, not the commissioners. It does not reflect their own conclusions. So the report can and does say that there was no credible evidence of a relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda. This is in no way a reflection of John Lehman or Tom Kean's feelings on the issue. It is not the media's fault that it reported the story accurately and the White House went a little nutty over it.
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I have to say, I'm impressed by today's William Safire column. Or at least the first two-thirds or so of it. Eventually, he drives back into crazytown. But for a moment, he's the most honest conservative commentator in politics.
Instead of blaming the "liberal media" for its coverage of the 9/11 commission's staff report, which the media reported on completely accurately, he understands why there's a disconnect between what commission members are saying and what the report says. And he is quite rightly perplexed by it.
Note, I said "staff report." Ben-Veniste and Lehman made this point on Meet the Press yesterday. The report is the conclusion of the commission staff, not the commissioners. It does not reflect their own conclusions. So the report can and does say that there was no credible evidence of a relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda. This is in no way a reflection of John Lehman or Tom Kean's feelings on the issue. It is not the media's fault that it reported the story accurately and the White House went a little nutty over it.
