Patterico found it, of course. (I really, really would not go up against him in court.) Clinton's Fox News Sunday appearance that is generating so damn many spilled pixels and barrels of ink included a number of interesting things. Including this one:
In an interview aired on Fox News Sunday today, Chris Wallace asked Bill Clinton why he hadn’t done more to get Osama bin Laden. Clinton’s furious answer lasted several minutes, and included finger-wagging reminiscent of Clinton’s angry declaration that he had not had sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.
According to Clinton, this was all a right-wing hatchet job, and Wallace had never asked similar questions of Bush officials:
So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you[r] nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..
WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…
CLINTON:..
WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?
CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke.
Wallace replied that such questions had been asked. Clinton replied: “I don’t believe you asked them that.”
I believe he did.
In 2004, Wallace asked almost the exact same question of Donald Rumsfeld that he asked Clinton today.
Here’s what Wallace asked Clinton today:
[H]indsight is 20 20 . . . but the question is why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?
And here is what Wallace asked Donald Rumsfeld on the March 28, 2004 episode of Fox News Sunday:
I understand this is 20/20 hindsight, it’s more than an individual manhunt. I mean — what you ended up doing in the end was going after al Qaeda where it lived. . . . pre-9/11 should you have been thinking more about that?
. . . .
What do you make of his [Richard Clarke’s] basic charge that pre-9/11 that this government, the Bush administration largely ignored the threat from al Qaeda?
. . . .
Mr. Secretary, it sure sounds like fighting terrorism was not a top priority.
Patterico goes on from there. It's worth taking a trip over and reading the whole thing. But really, does any of this sound familiar? Anything at all? Especially the finger wagging?
meryl made a comment at Patterico’s which likened Bill Clinton’s bizzare accusations to the behavior of Bogart’s Capt. Queeg (in The Caine Mutiny).
The observation struck me as entirely accurate.
It was the strawberries…..
Just a glance at Memeorandum this morning tells me the fallout from Bubba pitching that fit is gonna be COMEDY GOLD! on the InterTubesâ„¢ the next few days.
Freepers re-writing history on Clinton/Monica/bin Laden criticism
Interesting.
By the way, soemone said how strange that when Bush flipped out in the Rose Garden last week no right-wing bloggers said a word about it.
Reading both sides is quite interesting.
“By the way, soemone said how strange that when Bush flipped out in the Rose Garden last week….”
Err, WTF? When did this occur? I don’t remember any report that the Prez started (figuratively) foaming at the mouth and lashed out at any preceived enemies.
Whereas there is tape on bubba doing as such.
Yes. Bill’s accusations are definitely bizarre. Where does he get the idea that Fox News Channel is biased? That’s just ridiculous. I mean, they have “Fair and Balanced” in the slogan and everything. If trite, inconsequential slogans don’t prove there’s no bias at FNC, I don’t know what does. Let’s have O’reilly tell Fox News security to call Bill Clinton at home to scold him.
Actually guys, upon further review, Bill says, “I don’t BELIEVE you asked them that.”
Now, we all know, you can’t really call a belief a lie. I mean, I don’t believe that Jesus is the messiah, and I certainly don’t think he was reincarnated? Am I a liar? No…I’m a godless liberal. There’s a difference.
“Err, WTF? When did this occur? I don’t remember any report that the Prez started (figuratively) foaming at the mouth and lashed out at any preceived enemies.”
Well, I think you should read not only republican blogs, but democrat ones too.
Anyhow, I can believe that democrats exaggerate the “spectacle of Bush´s hysterical tantrum/meltdown in the Rose Garden” .
And I can believe that republicans says “he just put the indignant, left-wing liberal media into it’s rightful place”, while the behavious of Bush and Clinton was the same.
Panem at circenses