Dr. Condeleeza Rice's Testimony

[dude1394]

Theatre

TERRORISM: For the record
The Times-Union

Condi Rice gave a masterful performance at the 9/11 commission this week, but probably to no avail. This is theater, and truth is not the primary objective.

If the commission actually were interested in finding out what led up to the attacks of Sept. 11, it could have met any time during the past 2 1/2 years, or next year for that matter.

But, holding the hearings now offers a stage for those hoping to oust President Bush from office. Any benefit to the country would be of secondary importance.

Rice did not help toward that objective. She explained that -- once one overcomes the assumed omniscience of hindsight -- the government was addressing terrorism, after eight years of neglect.

Intelligence agencies, crippled by Democratic policies of the past, were doing their best to keep up, but most reasonable people recognize that identifying and monitoring every cell phone call in the terrorist world, translating it and analyzing it is a daunting task, and that was only part of the job.

The White House was busy trying to pull the nation out of the Clinton recession, which leading Democrats at the time were blaming the new administration for and calling the nation's most pressing problem.

What the commission is doing by calling in close presidential advisers for sworn testimony, and seeking to declassify presidential advisory memos, is good theater but dangerous precedent. It could come back to bite a future Democrat president.

Rice more than held her own against the attempts by Democrats on the commission to discredit her.

She was particularly effective against the posturing Bob Kerrey, who was following the Democrat line that Iraq "distracted" Bush from the fight against terrorism -- forgetting that he had linked Iraq with the USS Cole attack in 2000, while calling for regime change.

This is all part of the effort to find fodder for the Democrat candidate and distract the public from the glaring fact that the previous administration allowed terrorism free rein for eight years. Rice did not assist that effort.