Condi's Image

Someone at the Boston Herald will likely get a talking to, as an article about Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's refutation of former President Bill Clinton's claims about the Bush Administration's inaction in the months leading to 9/11 was accompanied by the wrong photo.

The original item has been corrected. (A tip of the hat to AmericaBlog and D-Day.)

We're not done with Condi.

CBS News' new anchor, Katie Couric, gushes about the Secretary of State in a blog entry.

Rice is 'scary smart' and she plays the piano. She enjoys being a girl. She likes to play tennis and is learning to play golf.

"And she doesn't like to muck anything up," Couric gleefully assures us.

Like ignoring Richard Clarke's memo about the very real danger of al-Qaeda?

A boot to the head to Peter Baker over at the Washington Post, who writes that President Clinton was wrong about there being no meetings about al-Qaeda. He points out that, wait, there was a meeting.

On September 4, 2001.

Clarke's memo was written on January 25, 2001 � less than a week after President Bush's inauguration.

Baker also points out that there were several meetings of an interagency group called the Deputies Committee. However, Clarke's memo called for a meeting of the Principals Committee: the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Director of the CIA, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Vice-President.

In Clarke's book, Against All Enemies, the first Deputies Committee meeting took place in April. After Clarke delivered his briefing about al-Qaeda, Paul Wolfowitz commented, "Well, I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden."

Wolfowitz made further dismissive comments, calling bin Laden 'a little terrorist,' and deriding Clarke's suggestion that they pay attention to bin Laden's writings. Further action was delayed by then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and Condi's request that the material be 'framed' by the Deputies Committee before the Principals could even bother with it.

Now, of course, President Bush affirms that we should pay attention to what the terrorists say, because they may do exactly that.

An insight that came from Richard Clarke.

The House has passed a bill that would bar judges from awarding damages and legal fees to civil rights groups that sue municipalities for violating the First Amendment strictures on government establishment of religion.

Republicans openly admit that this is aimed at groups who file suit against the display of Nativity scenes and the Ten Commandments.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Hostettler (R-Indiana), says the measure is in response to groups 'seeking to remove every vestige of our religious heritage from public places.'

And this is happening in the shadow of speeches where the President talks of Islamic extremists who want to enforce a theocracy.

We're a nation of hypocrites.

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