Clinton Rage Interview Live via Web (ON NOW, 5:35 PM EDT)

B.B.C. ^ | 22 June, 2004

[mabelkitty]

If we follow through on Clinton's logic, Saddam dies, his loony kids take over, and bingo, we have another Libya.

[Miss Marple]

I missed this whole thing, due to babysitting.

I am MOST interested in the inference that he tried to get Blair to betray President Bush. At the time he visited Chequers, we surmised that he might be up to no good. Apparently, he was.

[joesbucks]

My local public radio station carries the BBC. Was listening to the interview just after 8pm Eastern. Went pretty well until he did become agitated over a question saying the press used the story and that it helped Starr and Starr's team went to Arkansas and tried to destroy folks, took children from school to get people to talk, put Susan McDoougle in a Hannibal Lecter type cel.

[lainie]

DIMBLEBY: It’s reported that you went privately to Chequers to see Tony Blair before the invasion. Is that true and presumably if it is true you didn’t urge him to support President Bush?

CLINTON: Well I have sa.. I don’t.. you’re asking me a question and I’m not sure exactly when I was at Chequers, vis a vis the Iraq date. I’ve been there several times since I left office. Tony Blair and I are friends. Mrs Blair and Hillary and all, we’re all friends and I stayed in touch with him and I urged him to try to work with the, with the incoming Bush administration because I think the partnership for the British and the Americans is important it should transcend party politics and personal differences.

DIMBLEBY: But did you share your doubts about the wisdom of invading…

CLINTON: Well I…

DIMBLEBY: …without a UN backing.

CLINTON: But here’s the problem Tony Blair faced. Blair had a problem unique in Europe and that’s why I went to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool and defended him …he had a problem unique in Europe.

Britain, the UK, had been the bridge between the US in Europe but when America moved to the right after the 2000 election there was nobody to be the bridge between the US and Europe but the UK. Blair also believed as I did that we had to open Iraq to inspections, which all the rest of Europe agreed to after 9/11. They agreed with that. And that if Saddam Hussein blocked the inspections and didn’t finish, we should be prepared to attack. I agreed with that. So in other words I basically had the same position that Prime Minister Blair did. That is, not where the Bush administration was which is we want to attack anyway, whether there’s weapons or not there and not where the Europeans were, which is even if there are weapons there or even if he won’t let the inspections proceed, he’s too weak to do any harm. We’re helping America and the world in Afghanistan, let’s don’t fight regardless.

So here was Blair stuck in the middle, same place I was. And the ground that he wanted to stake out was represented in the last gasp UN Resolution, if you remember, that failed, it said let’s give him six more weeks, or however much time it was, and it collapsed. So Prime Minister Blair was left in an unenviable position. He either had to go with the American position, which he didn’t entirely agree with or go with the European position, which he didn’t entirely agree with.

And in the end I believed he thought that there was still some risk that Saddam had the weapons, that if he stayed involved, he could have an impact on the post-Saddam Iraq. But if he stayed involved, he could keep America and Europe, closer together than they otherwise would have been, and so he made the decision he did. I can’t quarrel with that; he was in a very difficult position.

[lainie]

I guess that means "I don't recall," and "oh, poor Tony, he was between a rock & a hard place. It's all the fault of the VRWC. Let's talk about something else. Just not Monica."

[Mo1]

According to Adrian Warnock's UK Blog, "The transcript will be available after the programme on the BBC website."

Thanks ... I'll have to look for it

[Miss Marple]

Parsing the phrases in that exchange, it seems to me that he DID try to undermine Bush, and that Blair wasn't having any of that!

[A Citizen Reporter]

I don't know about you, but I WANT to see this part of the interview. I'm watching H&C right now, but they haven't shown this particular part.

Hannity has Beckel on an all they are talking about is Lewinsky.

[lainie]

The transcript's been posted:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/panorama/transcripts/clintoninterview.txt

[cyncooper]

I am MOST interested in the inference that he tried to get Blair to betray President Bush. At the time he visited Chequers, we surmised that he might be up to no good. Apparently, he was.

Me, too. I hightlighted that, myself, and posted about it on another thread.

It goes to show we DO know how to connect the dots and we most certainly know what makes Bill Clinton tick.

[Miss Marple]

Beckel is a big, fat loser. I want to see that exchange about Blair as well.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"So here was Blair stuck in the middle, same place I was."

That would be wrong, Slick, because Prime Minister Blair was still the leader of foreign policy for his county. And you were a retired President of the US. You were not in the same place.

[Mo1]

That was fast

Thanks

[Howlin]

If you go to their web site, you can move the video along to find the part you want to see!

[lainie]

Yes. "You did go there intending one thing, and you did say so, right?" A: "See, this is where P/M Blair was at..."

A non-answer, but no one here is shocked, I'm sure.

Actually, one could infer that it was Blair who set him straight, so yes I'd have to agree with you. Now, whether Blair's heart was really in it, that's another matter. Clinton implies that it wasn't. But Clinton might be saying that because Blair might think he really needs to appear that way now. I don't know.

[Miss Marple]

Zell Miller talking about how when he gave the nominating speech he thought Clinton was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think he no longer thinks that.

[Mo1]

A lot of folks have woke up to Clinton since those days.

[lainie]

I was thinking that, too. Here's Slick interjecting himself into foreign policy decisions, telling his "friend" the Prime Minister of England, that America and Britain need to keep their alliance, regardless of politics, when he's just Joe Q. Citizen. I also love that Clinton was so upset over the politics of personal destruction. He wasn't upset about them when the democrats heaped them on the other side.

[Mo1]

I am MOST interested in the inference that he tried to get Blair to betray President Bush. At the time he visited Chequers, we surmised that he might be up to no good. Apparently, he was.

Working against a siting President and admitting to it is not too smart

Other then Carter .. has any other President done this?

[Howlin]

If you have not watched this video, you really need to.

He's even more sick than we could have ever dreamed.

He's mad as a hatter.