Matthews forgets who was president on 9/11

August 2, 2006

I know the right likes to blame whatever they can on Bill Clinton, but for Chris Matthews to disparage the former president because he “didn’t stop” the Sept. 11 attacks is painfully silly, even by Matthews’ already-low standards.

In a discussion with Mark Green, Democratic candidate for New York attorney general, and KT McFarland, a Republican running for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-NY) Senate seat, about President Bush’s efforts to protect New York City from terrorism on the July 31 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews claimed that “[w]e know” President Bill Clinton “didn’t stop” the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

Matthews began by asking McFarland, “How has the president done in protecting this city, since he took office and since he went through all this on 9-11?” When McFarland responded that “the fact that we’ve not had another terrorist incident is example number one” of Bush’s success, Matthews invited her to explain “what foiled the terrorists,” and did not challenge her response. Yet when Green responded to McFarland’s claim by stating that “terrorism around the world has tripled” and that “[t]he war in Iraq has increased terrorism [and] isolated America,” Matthews asked Green if he thought President Bill Clinton “did a good job of stopping a second attack on the World Trade Center when he was president.” While Green said that “we can’t know,” Matthews replied that “[w]e know he didn’t stop it.”

Well, technically that’s true, Clinton “didn’t stop” 9/11. Then again, if my memory is right, Clinton had left office eight months before it happened.

For that matter, now that I think about it, maybe some should remind Matthews that it wasn’t Clinton who took a month off despite getting a Presidential Daily Briefing that said “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.” And it sure wasn’t Clinton who told the briefer who showed him that PDB, “All right; you’ve covered your ass, now.”

And what did Reagan, or even Lincoln do to stop 9/11?

  • I loathe the “Bush must be doing something right because we haven’t had another attack on US soil” argument.

    Reminds me of the Simpsons, where Lisa tries to make a point to Homer by telling him she has a rock that keeps away tigers, and notes the absence of tigers as proof. Homer then offers Lisa money for the rock.

    We could also argue that Bush’s policies have prevented the US from being attacked by aliens.

  • Like, does anyone still expect reason and truth to govern the statements of Bush supporters? Don’t forget: they make their own reality… proudly.

  • This brings up a really good point, and I think it would make a good Sunday discussion question – since we know the administration and its apologists love to use the “we havent been attacked since 9/11 and that means Bush’s terrorist policy is a success” argument, what’s going to happen when we inevitably are attacked again, assuming it is on Bush’s watch?

    Logically, if you use the argument above, it sort of holds that you could call that policy a failure if we are attacked, to the extent you believed the policy was previously a success. But not necessarily. I think the alternative is to say, see, look how many people have tried to attack, and yes, we cant get them all but weve stopped so many, and now this one got through, drat.

    So at this point, what happens? Do they completely abolish privacy rights and start doing unannounced and unwarranted searches of anyone even remotely suspected of anything to do with terrorism, after of course, listening to all their phone calls, reading their email, etc. (Wait, isnt the government likely already doing that to anyone we damn well please?) What’s the next step in the patriot act nightmare?

    Im just wondering, who will be blamed for the inevitable failure – will it then be clear that our lack of preparedness (as described in the homeland security listing of grade F security measures) was at fault, or will they rewrite history to change the grades, and say that they werent importantt?

    I just cant put anything past this bunch of hypocrites and Im really worried that no matter how things go in the future, the administration’s grip on power is already so tight, their willingness to use revisionism and propaganda so apparent, and their sense of decency so totally debased, that things can only get worse.

    Ive already written off the November elections by the way. Just knowing how many things this group has been caught doing regarding illegal election tactics, one can only guess how much we dont know about, and how they plan to make sure that neither the House nor the Senate is taken back by anyone who might be able to look under the rug and see all the dirt…

    Man, it’s not even Monday and Im this bummed out….

  • Is it just me, or has half the world gone to hell in a handbasket since Bush took office?

  • Im just wondering, who will be blamed for the inevitable failure

    It’s going to be the Dems fault, of course. For exposing the wire-tapping and bank spying practices of the Bush admin (who care that it was actually the press). The Dems will also be accused of “emboldening the enemy” by questioning Bush’s illegal tactics, and daring to stand up for the aforementioned privacy rights. It just HAS to be the Dems fault; it always is right?

  • G2000: I just cant put anything past this bunch of hypocrites and Im really worried that no matter how things go in the future, the administration’s grip on power is already so tight, their willingness to use revisionism and propaganda so apparent, and their sense of decency so totally debased, that things can only get worse.

    exactly. |-(

  • the best part is that if there were another attack (may Allah forbid it) is that the GOP line would be that we cannot afford to deviate from the Bush Doctrine. We must stay strong. They just spin whatever the question is into a “I love Bush” cheer.

  • Ahem, did we not suffer through the anthrax letter attack after 9/11?
    And the Bush MalAdminsistration has done such a great job of solving that one, eh?
    So the “no attacks since 9/11” is false, a lie, misinfomation.

    Does the entire country suffer from amnesia & ADD?

  • Im just wondering, who will be blamed for the inevitable failure

    Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and whoever is the Democratic frontrunner for 2008.

    And Howard Dean.

    Did I mention Michael Moore — he’s fat!

  • Of course, by that logic Bush’s policies have also prevented 99% of Americans from being in the top 1% in household income.

    Bush’s policies have kept this country from taking its rightful place ruling the entire world.

    Why, Bush’s policies have prevented us from finding a cure for cancer!

    Under the Bush Administration, we have not opened a single gold mine on Mars. Or started deriving energy from the atmosphere of Venus.

    Bush has not even eliminted all crime.

    And because Bush is in office, and I have no free Lexus in my drive, Bush’s policies must have prevented that, too.

    (I kinda like the way this argument from the unprovable negative can work both directions)

  • ***I loathe the “Bush must be doing something right because we haven’t had another attack on US soil” argument.***
    —Don B

    The United States, under the Bush administration, allowed an aerial assault on United States sovereign territory by a foreign power for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Clinton prevented such an event for 8 years. Bush failed in this critical mission in less that 8 months.

    During the early 1960s, President Kennedy held off a plethora of Cuban-based nuclear missiles, World War 3, and made the Soviet Union “blink.” Bush couldn’t even hold back a mere handful of religious extremists and a couple of jumbo jets.

    I’m getting a pretty good feeling that “Chrissie” Matthews—and others of his disreputable ilk—won’t have a job much longer. Once the master falls, there’s little need for the lapdogs. It can’t simply be one of those “see-ya-on-the-flip-side” scenarios; the better of the MSM have gotten in too deep by either supporting these maniacs (or just spewing the GOP tripe as “real news”), and it’s all going to collapse around them when the Bushian Hordes have been driven into the sea….

  • Let us never forget that George Bush Sr. didn’t stop the first attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. And he left office just one month before it happened.

  • Quite frankly, I turned Tweety off ages ago.

    He is like Arlen Specter:

    Everyone jumps for joy when something true manages to dribble off his double chin… That is, until he sucks the spittle back in and continues on amok.

    Nevertheless I did recently watch his interview on the Jay Leno show.

    Typically, he didn’t disappoint– in terms of his normal ration of squirrely bullshit. In fact I fell over with laughter when at the end he says he is an independent journalist who can’t pick a favorite for the 2008 election… and then precedes to pick Giuliani! (droll droll dribble dribble chin chin suck suck!)

    He is nothing more… and will never be anything more… than a typical american media dick.

  • Bush failed to do his job. If it was any job in the private sector he’d be fired immediately, especially if he tried to give some lame ass excuse.

  • How Bush escaped accountability for 9/11 is one of the greatest political PR acts of all time.

  • By an odd coincidence, on 9/11 Bill Clinton was a private citizen, which means he had the same power, authority, and responsibility as, well, Chris Matthews.

    So tell us, Chris, why you didn’t do more to stop 9/11?

  • I think you guys are being too hard on King Bush.

    After all, we haven’t been hit by an asteroid in his entire term – that means he’s protecting us from evil space rocks.

  • al Qaeda hasn’t attacked America on American soil since 9/11 because it’s not strategically necessary for them to do so. The 9/11 attack prompted the Bush adminstration into a series of bonehead moves (e.g., refusing NATO’s offer to mobilize in America’s aid, letting Osama escape, the Axis of Evil speech (Iran had been quietly cooperating with us up to that point, by the way), invading Iraq, not shoring up Afghanistan, et cetera ad nauseaum) that made America look like an insular, arrogant, meddling, corrupt bully, depleted our resources, and turned the world against us. If you’re in a boxing match and your opponent starts bloodying his own nose, you don’t continue hitting him– you go into a neutral corner (or a cave with a satellite dish) and watch. “Mission accomplished,” as someone would say.

  • Mark Green, a typical Fox River valley republican, is running for Gov here in WISC, not NY Atty Gen.

  • Re: Ed’s link @ 13 : Theory of Intelligent Falling

    Here is a piece of novel political thinking for you:

    First consider Colbert.
    Most everyone knows he is aping wingnuts.
    And yeah, Colbert does this well… heck… he does it even better than most right wingers do it for real.

    So how about upping the ante?

    How about aping right wing evangelical think tanks?
    How about aping right wing evangelical advocacy groups?

    How about actually funding something akin to the “Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning” whose soul mission is to actually insist on this sort of nonsense at school boards and in courts of law?

    Why not?

    Why not bring Colbert’s devil’s advocate into reality?
    Why not rub evangelical noses in their own mystical potty pot?

    Why not take satire to the ultimate level?

    If these people want to rub the public’s noses in their creationism why not rub their noses in gravitational creationism?

    I’d love to see this happen… just to stir shit up…
    Just to make this culture cringe and look itself hard in the face.

  • 24 you’re on to something that cognitive scientists sold to ultra-conservative extremists years ago – we are not rational beings, we are human beings, we are human animals.

    All this wailing from the left stems from a lack of comprehension of how well the Rove / Matthews spin plays.

    What plays even better is parody and humor. It’s elementary Branding – appeal to the limbic brain to get it off course so higher brain functions can get back to work.

    How does it work: 1. Bring up another limbic hot button – survival language. Option 2. Humor / Parody / Satire, but…. it’s tricky, this one…. if you demean in your humor you suffer the fate of the court jester: Amuse, come back tomorrow. Offend, you die.

    Humor and parody must, must – I can’t repeat this enough – must not demean or indicate harm or the limbic brain is back in full force, out to get the perceived attacker. Colbert and Jon Stewart are amazing because they truly love the people they ‘make fun’ of. They recognize the dignity in the worst slimeballs. They believe in redemption, although they don’t necessarily expect that it will occur in their time on this mortal coil.

    Much for us to mull, and much opportunity, as empire overreaches. Will we fall down in flames or fall down laughing?

  • You have”nt had a terrorist attack because the evil axis in the white house is doing a fine job of wrecking a the world and the USA. Is it time to take up arms?

  • “Bush must be doing something right because we haven’t had another attack on US soil” — That’s right, terrorists have taken a back seat since Bush & Co are doing such a grand job of destroying the US of A for them.

  • CHRIS ‘MISS PIGGY’ MATTHEWS IS NOTHING MORE THAN A CUMSLUT FOR HIS BELOVED REPIGLICAN PARTY. HE IS OF COURSE IS A STATE OF MASSIVE PERSONAL DELUSON BECAUSE HE ACTUALLY THINKS HE IS RELEVANT. HOW CAN ANYONE MAKE SENSE OF HIS SPLUTTERINGS WHEN THOSE SPLUTTERINGS ARE CAUSED BY ALL THE CUM COMING OUT OF HIS MOUTH THAT IS CAUSED BY BEING REPEATEDLY GANGBANGED BY ALL HIS ELEPHANT FRIENDS … TRYING TO ‘TALK’ WHILE THAT CUM KEEPS ON COMING OUT OF THAT MOUTH ? DID ANYONE SEE HOW EXCITED HE GOT THE OTHER DAY WITH THAT FLY INFESTED CUNT CALLED ANN COULTER WAS ON HIS ‘SHOW’ … DURING THE COMMERCIAL HE WAS SEEN DIVE BOMBING THAT INFESTED CUNT OF HERS … THEN ASKING HER TO CUM BACK. OF COURSE.

  • For that matter, now that I think about it, maybe some should remind Matthews that it wasn’t Clinton who took a month off despite getting a Presidential Daily Briefing that said “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.” And it sure wasn’t Clinton who told the briefer who showed him that PDB, “All right; you’ve covered your ass, now.”

    Nope, that wasn’t Clinton. But it was Clinton I believe, who concluded in mid-2000 that Al Qaida was the single greatest threat facing the country at that time, had the military draw up a plan to assist the Northern Alliance in overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan so that we could go in and get them and then, lacking enough time to complete the operation before his term was up, had Sandy Berger tie the whole thing up with a bow and present it personally to Condi Rice and co, in early 2001.

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