Spin vs. security [Hugh Hewitt says 9-11 hearings show Dems untrustworthy on defense]

www.worldnetdaily.com ^ | April 14, 2004 | Hugh Hewitt

[RonDog]

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Spin vs. security

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Posted: April 14, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Why were some members of the 9-11 Commission on the Sunday shows this past Easter weekend?

Isn't the Commission supposed to be non-partisan? Isn't it supposed to be acting in the national interest? Isn't it supposed to speak with one voice on the means by which another 9-11 might be avoided?

If so, why would Democrats Richard Ben-Veniste and Bob Kerrey feel obliged to appear on newsmaker shows? What "news" are they trying to make?

The truth is obvious: Ben-Veniste and Kerrey have thrown the national interest overboard in order to promote the interests of the Democratic Party. They understand that any final Commission report will at best be silent about the lapses of the Clinton administration, and may even be obliged by the weight of the evidence to underscore the negligence of the team that included Bill and Hillary, Sandy, Madeline and Richard. These folks had bin Laden in their sights on four occasions, and never once pulled the trigger. Could 9-11 have been avoided? Perhaps, but only by an all-out assault on the mastermind.

Dems know that the upshot of this reality is a second reality: The Democrats cannot be trusted to attend to the national defense; they cannot be trusted with the national security. No, they are not treasonous, simply unserious. They are to national security what third graders are to automobiles – individuals not capable of driving no matter how eager they might be to get behind the wheel.

So rather than slink away as any decent person confronted with the results of their own recklessness, the cobras of the past – Ben-Veniste, Kerrey and Roemer – have tried in vain to poison public opinion against Bush. They have hinted; they have whispered; they have waved memos.

So the president released the actual memo, and their pants are down around their ankles – again. Clinton and his team reduced the national intelligence capacity to broad warnings of bad weather sometime in the future. Bush launched new efforts, but there wasn't enough time to overcome eight years of partying and posturing. The blow fell. We were blind.

Now Kerrey and Ben-Veniste and the other servants want to persuade voters that all will be better if we return to the years of pretending. Perhaps they can stitch together a majority of the foolish.

But I don't think so. Millions of fanatics want millions of Americans dead. That's the reality. Kerry or Bush? I think Bush wins in a walk, no matter what the "commissioners" who put spin in front of service say.

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Hugh Hewitt is an author, television commentator and syndicated talk-show host of the Salem Radio Network's Hugh Hewitt Show, heard in over 40 markets around the country.

[RonDog]

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[RonDog]

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[RonDog]

See also:

9-11 commission absurdities
townhall.com ^ | 4/14/04 | Brent Bozell
Posted on 04/13/2004 10:47:17 PM PDT by kattracks

When Condoleezza Rice raised her right hand to begin a much-anticipated TV show on April 8 -- broadcast live for three hours on ABC, CBS and NBC -- the absurdities were already in full swing.
 
Absurdity No. 1: Where was the "news" here? The September 11 Commission was learning almost nothing new, since Rice had already testified for four hours in private. All that was left was a political spectacle. The liberal media-Democrat complex wanted to give the impression that the Bush Administration had done something criminally wrong.

 That might seem hypersensitive, but wasn't it that very hypersensitivity to impressions that caused the networks to dismiss reflexively any idea of live coverage of Clinton-scandal hearings, including the Senate impeachment trial in 1999, which they dropped like a hot potato within 90 minutes? The TV elite did not want to give the impression that Clinton had -- gasp! -- done anything wrong at any point. Back then, the network stars suggested those hearings were primarily designed to "embarrass the president." Where was that sensitivity for the current president?

 Absurdity No. 2: The idea that the September 11 Commission was utterly nonpartisan. That's utter bunk. For months, the Bush team was trashed for opposing an "independent" commission looking into these matters in a sensitive political season. But can anyone now look at the Democratic badgering, interrupting and dismissing of Rice and see a nonpartisan picture?

 We were told that the commission's chairmen, Republican Tom Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, were so scrupulous about a nonpartisan image that they preferred to do every interview as a team. While Kean and Hamilton have acquitted themselves quite well in their nonpartisanship, this obviously did not extend to the Friday morning TV shows on ABC, CBS and NBC.

 They all featured commission member (and former Democratic presidential candidate) Bob Kerrey fulminating about all the Bush Administration's laxity before September 11. If the partisan pounding on Rice in the live coverage (complete with Kerrey's off-point anti-Iraq war speech, followed by audience applause) wasn't enough to convince the public that the hearings were a partisan effort, then Kerrey's trilogy of trash talk should have done the job.

 Absurdity No. 3: The idea that the activists who forced the creation of this politicized "independent" commission were just a group of nonpartisan widows with no political axes to grind. How dishonest.

 For weeks now, the networks have celebrated a very selective set of widows to dish out their anti-Bush outrage and ignored the families who support President Bush. On the day of Rice's testimony, NBC and then MSNBC championed four women known as the "Jersey Girls," who uniformly hate Bush, especially Kristen Breitweiser, who has coldly and routinely declared that 3,000 Americans were "murdered on Bush's watch."

 Meanwhile, a Nexis search quickly shows that NBC has aired no news story with the words "widow" and the U.S.S. Cole, where terrorists killed 17 Americans in 2000. NBC aired no news story with the words "widow" and the embassy in Kenya, where terrorists killed 12 Americans in 1998. NBC aired no news story with the words "widow" and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, where terrorists killed 19 Americans in 1996. These grieving families have never been given a nationwide TV platform on NBC to express their opinions on how the Clinton administration handled investigations of those incidents.

 Absurdity No. 4: While everyone chewed over the public testimony of Rice in the morning, the private testimony of Bill Clinton in the afternoon was almost totally ignored by the press.

 Here's the entirety of Dan Rather's coverage: "The 9-11 Commission also met in private today, taking testimony from former president Bill Clinton behind closed doors for more than three hours. In a statement, the panel said the former president was, and I quote, 'forthcoming and responsive' to its questions, but gave no other details." The next morning, NBC's Ann Curry briefly mentioned: "Former President Clinton has testified before the 9-11 commission behind closed doors. Commission members described Thursday's three-hour meeting as frank and constructive."

 What did he say? The networks didn't seem to care. On FOX, reporter James Rosen found Clinton wasn't exactly apologizing: "the former president also said that he has been racking his brain to see over and over again what else he might have done, and he can't think of anything else he would have done to target Al Qaeda." Commissioner Slade Gorton suggested to FOX that "a great deal" of the commission's private Clinton time was devoted to assessing future needs and discussing what recommendations should go into the commission's final report, not grilling Clinton about his failures.

 It's not hard to predict that whatever the commission puts into its report, the criticism of Clinton within the document will be minimized, and the comments that make Bush look bad will saturate the news -- just like the "news" coverage of April 8.

Brent Bozell is President of Media Research Center, a Townhall.com member group.

©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

NEVER FORGET


So why are the Democrats attacking President BUSH so strongly both here and in Iraq, you ask..?

MONSOOR IJAZ..!!!


See:

Freeper Alert: MONSOOR IJAZ gets PRIVATE 9/11 Testimony, demands IN PUBLIC

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1117043/posts


NEVER FORGET

[RonDog]

And, from www.hughhewitt.com:

April 13, 2004

Posted at 12:45 PM, Pacific

No posting until Thursday --I am off to the Naval Academy's 44rth annual Foreign Affairs Conference. This year's gathering focuses on Iraq's reconstruction, and I am moderating a panel with uber-columnist Mark Steyn and the New Republic's Spencer Ackerman. The estimable Dr. Rice will be addressing the Midshipmen, and they will learn more from her in an evening than from many years of New York Times' Weeks in Review. These are gatherings for serious people --the left may well be represented, but not in great numbers. They remain unserious about the war, and interested primarily in political advantage.

Does the presence of 9/11 Commission members on Sunday talk shows not tell us everything we need to know about the 9/11 Commission --Ben-Veniste and Kerrey making the rounds --preening-- and looking for Monday morning headlines? Does anyone doubt the mission of these two and the other Dems on the Commission?  The Commission's a wreck, a monument to the failed hope that the Dems could regain their balance.

Well, we tried. They weren't interested. They want the power back, the war be damned. So they launch the reptilian Ben-Veniste and the amusing Kerrey to try and persuade America that "Bush knew!" If the country is stupid, they will buy this. I don't think the country is stupid. I think the country knows it is in a war with an enemy that numbers in the millions and is ruthless. We are winning in Iraq, and we are winning in Afghanistan. We are on offense around the globe. Voting for any Democrat in the fall will be voting for a cease-fire that is an illusion. 

I am confident. The American voter isn't stupid. There are a lot of people trying very hard to kill us. President Bush understands that. Senator Kerry does not.

More on Thursday.

[tkathy]

He has a terrific upbeat rational talk show. No demogoguery.

[Valin]

"I don't like you 'cause you're gonna get me killed!"
Samuel L. Jackson
Die Hard with a Vengeance

[Valin]

Unlike certain other talkshows I could name.
(hint Michael Savage)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I am confident. The American voter isn't stupid. There are a lot of people trying very hard to kill us. President Bush understands that. Senator Kerry does not.

Amen to that!!!!

[Wolfstar]

I don't think the country is stupid. I think the country knows it is in a war with an enemy that numbers in the millions and is ruthless.

I do not share Hugh's optimism. The only way I will be convinced that the majority of American voters are not stupid is if they resoundingly reelect President Bush in November. At the moment, I'm not reassured. Have you seen this thread about Kerry's double-digit lead in New York? The state hardest hit, and the state most tenderly cared for by President Bush in those darkest days after 9/11, still has not been shocked out of its Leftist tilt.

With New York as an example, I believe the rest of the country, to whom 9/11 was more of a TV spectacular than a truly personal event, could easily be persuaded to vote for Kerry. Or, in the case of equally blind hardliners on the Right side of the political spectrum, to vote Libertarian or for another minority party, or to stay home.

[MHGinTN]

Once again, Hugh Hewitt is right on the money with the cogent analysis. The partisan assault being launched from a commission assigned with improving our nation's security is excellent proof that the democrats don't have a clue reagrding the war on terrorism. They CANNOT be trusted to wage said war and have proven they are more obsessed with their lust for power than the safety of Americans ... including our courageous American Soldiers these sleazy dems use as pawns to be traded for sound bites from the likes of Fat Teddy and Undertaker Kerry.

[Annie03]

"With New York as an example, I believe the rest of the country, to whom 9/11 was more of a TV spectacular than a truly personal event, could easily be persuaded to vote for Kerry"

Sadly, I think you are on target. Today I read a couple of threads from that day. My husband and I have not forgotten. Framed in our family room is the news photo of the firemen hoisting the flag, and the cross found amid the destruction. We will never forget that day, but it seems so many have. We don't like all of Pres. Bush's policies, but we believe Kerry would be a disaster on every level-especially regarding terror. I think the President is holding off on bringoug out the big guns in the campaign, possibly until after convention time. I am holding my concern over Kerry's numbers until we our closer to election time.

[Wolfstar]

Annie, I've lived in the Los Angeles area since the late 1970's. But I was born and raised in the New York City metro area and, in my youth, watched those towers rise. In my childhood, before they began the groundwork for what would later become the WTC, I walked those very streets the towers would later replace. There used to be a lot of day auction houses for all sorts of goods brought into lower Manhattan by boat. My father's brother, Frank, had a restaurant supply business on Canal Street. We would go visit Uncle Frank, then go to some of the auctions.

Because my dad and I lived in Jersey City, we'd take the Path trains from Journal Square into downtown Manhattan. I remember riding them when they were still called "the tubes," before being renamed Path. So that huge station over which the twin towers would one day be built, was as familiar to me as the neighborhood 7-11 might be to people in other communities. I remember the large newsstand that was just past the turnstiles as you came off or went on the Path trains. My favorite candy as a child was Chunky, and my dad would buy me a piece or two on the way home. These are some of my fondest childhood memories.

My father, his parents, and all of his siblings are buried in NYC cemetaries.

So it isn't just people who lost family members, or present-day New Yorkers who lost something very profound on that day. It's people like me, watching helplessly and with horror beyond description from 3000 miles away.

(Those Democrat shill "widders" don't own 9/11. We all do as Americans. The very tap roots of what became the United States of America are sunk in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — the states from which the planes were hijacked and into which they were flown as missles.)

Its from that persepective I can report to you quite clearly and honestly that, at least out here in Los Angeles, 9/11 had little more impact than one of those mega TV events that happen once or twice a decade. Even on that day, businesses and schools stayed open and life went on pretty much as usual. True, in the big company where I work, they had the live news feed on the internal company TV network and people gathered around to watch. And later that evening, relatively small numbers of people were strung out along some major streets with candles and flags. But for the most part, 9/11 did not seem to have much impact here. Heck, a few years earlier, there were hundreds more people lining the route OJ Simpson took from Orange County back to his Beverly Hills mansion the day he was arrested than there were on the streets with flags here the night of 9/11.

If it didn't have much personal impact even on the day it happened the further away one got from Ground Zero, Washington and that field in Pennsylvania, I doubt very, very seriously it will have any impact come November. I hope I'm too cynical and completely wrong, but fear not.

[Annie03]

Thank you for sharing your NYC memories. I am in CO, and I saw life "go on" here too. I opted to take my daughter to preschool that day-and it was surreal as it seemed a "normal" day there. Nothing was normal in our home. My husband was doing construction work at the airport-they had to make a dash out before lockdown. I was in shock-the world seemed eerily silent until about 3am when fighter jets thundered over my house. My husband and I cried together for days. I know many people were not so deeply affected-and I, too, hope that they will do the right thing in November.

[JohnHuang2]

Hugh Hewitt MEGA PING!!!

P.S. I'm having major computer virus problems. May have to reformat hard drive ... dunno yet. Hope y'all are doing well. Hope to be back soon. Till then, take care!

[GeronL]

JH2 needs a new computer, you can make donations at www.paypal.com/sendcashpleasehelpnowrescueme

[Alamo-Girl]

Oh no! I hope your virus is can be cured right away. Thanks for the ping!

[jwalsh07]

PestPatrol

[AuntB]

"Now Kerrey and Ben-Veniste and the other servants want to persuade voters that all will be better if we return to the years of pretending. Perhaps they can stitch together a majority of the foolish. "

Gulp. That's a sobering thought.

[AuntB]

"not grilling Clinton about his failures. "

Yeah, well they used their quota of GRILLING up on Condi Rice. I don't like these people.

[nopardons]

Thanks, as always for the ping,John! Yes, I'm now back from vacation and I hope that you get your computer fixed.

[nopardons]

I never shall,Ronnie and I won't let anyone else forget either!

[MeekOneGOP]

I'm having major computer virus problems. May have to reformat hard drive ....

Rut-Roh, Reorge ! Hope it gets fixed soon !

[blackie]

Big Hugh Hewitt ~ Bump!

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~