This morning there is an excellent post at the Daily Kos, I know it is not a favorite of yours, but it is pertinent to a point that was made up above, as to how much warning did the Bush administration have that an attack was imminent, I think if you take the time to read it you will find it eye opening.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2001/1/4/821835/-The-President-Was-Warned-Of-Impending-Terror-Attack

The premise of Larry’s post is that Rachel Maddow has wrongly and unfairly pointed out the hypocrisy of many Republicans criticism over Obama’s 3 day delay in addressing the Christmas day bombing attempt;

“While Republicans have taken president Obama to task for his 3 day delay in providing a response to the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Flight #253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, we hear MSNBC Republican hater Rachel Maddow pointing out that president George W. Bush waited six days before responding to shoe bomber Richard Reid’s December 22, 2001, botched terrorist attack on American Airlines Flight #63 from Paris to Miami. That’s a cop out. You need to do some fact finding before engaging in ready, fire, aim.”

I assumed that the next part of his post was his attempt to point out that Joe Biden did in-fact criticize Bush’s response time;

Senator Joe Biden, Democratic chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, appeared on Face the Nation with the opportunity to score cheap political points against an administration caught off guard by a terror attack for the third time in the space of 4 months. He made these comments:

“The ability for al Qaeda to coordinate and plan and focus on and carry out long-term devastating attacks in the United States has been badly crippled — not ended, but badly crippled. So we’re a lot better off than we were four months ago, although we’re still going to have this possibility.”

Prompting my response to this part of his post:

“As to Biden’s taking the opportunity to score “cheap political points” against Bush, what in his statement isn’t true and what exactly is CRITICISM?

“The ability for al Qaeda to coordinate and plan and focus on and carry out long-term devastating attacks in the United States has been badly crippled — not ended, but badly crippled. So we’re a lot better off than we were four months ago, although we’re still going to have this possibility.”

THAT’S CRITICISM?
Face it Larry, you are a PETTY PARTISAN HACK. and that’s ALL you’ll ever be.”

Now, I will admit and apologize for petty partisan hack as being over-the-top and too personal, but at the time I believed that the words ” score cheap political points” in reference to Joe Biden, were Larry’s. Nowhere in Larry’s post does he make the case for his point that “republican hater” and “headhunter” Rachel Maddow is wrong in the Republican criticism over Obama’s response time, Larry instead makes a point about Homeland Security and the timeline of its implementation, but that is a separate issue and has nothing to do with Rachel Maddow’s point, which again, was strictly about the response time and the criticism thereof. Larry never answered my on-topic question of wether or not Biden’s remarks amounted to criticism of Bush, but rather, responded with a denial of the quotation as being his and the second time by calling me a “terrorist” ( I refer specifically to posts #11 and 12).

In my opinion, Larry impugns Rachel Maddow’s and Joe Biden’s character based on nothing and for purely partisan reasons. I believe that Larry has the right to attack and smear the President or anyone else, but if he is doing so on this blog (or any open forum), he should expect to defend his words, regardless of wether his verbal opponent is anonymous or not.

I would like to remind Larry that he is not the only one on the receiving end of “personal attacks”, just today I was called a “terrorist”, but generally I’m hit with the usual; leave the country you; America-hater, Berkley loving, flag burner, never-held-a-job, veteran hater, communist, socialist etc.,etc.

Politics and strongly held opinions generate heat, part of this blog’s success is due to that heat.

Lastly, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I do admire you, Larry and Art (and Vern and even Terry) for putting your opinions out there under your own names and we all need to remember that that distinction makes the slings-and-arrows that you suffer more personal. My purpose is not to offend,( well yeah, sometimes it is) but to debate, I’ll try to keep to that.

I have restored your comment.

I encourage our readers to say what is on their minds. Disagreeing with us is par for the course.

The only favor I would ask of you is to try to stick to the facts and not get so personal with Larry or my other writers. I understand, you disagree with Larry. But does calling him a petty partisan hack really make your point? Or is it just meant to offend?

As far as Republicans go, Larry is pretty open-minded. Very few OC Republicans will blog for me. Larry has been with me from the start. The hacks in their party aren’t here – they are over at Red County.

In your haste to attack and slime Obama for anything and everything, you posted not only a very poorly written and sourced article, but one that didn’t even make your point.
You stepped in this steaming pile of crap and instead of admitting it or defending it, you have chosen to attack me.

Petty; taking a small incident and attempting to give it more significance than it deserves.

Partisan; attacking the opposing political party over something you gave your own party a pass on.

Hack; the inability to defend your own positions with logical arguments.

I rest my case.

Blame Art for his delay in providing you this media outlet where you can fire at will against all of us without divulging your true identity.
You are a terrorist when it relates to some of our posts

Your credibility aside, you never answered the question; does that Biden quote really sound like criticism of Bush? Actually all the above sources you cite above seem to make Rachel Maddow’s point; that at a time of extreme nervousness about terrorism in the country (just 4 months after 9-11) Bush was very blase’ about the “shoe bomber”, yet he wasn’t criticized and the incident was NOT politicized.

Or rather his response was to continue his Christmas vacation for another 2 weeks before returning to Washington DC and, as far as I can tell, never publicly addressing the matter in any form whatsoever (CORRECTION: see UPDATES 2 and 4).

Far be it from me to criticize Bush’s response, but in light of recent events and statements by prominent GOP politicians I think it’s worth revisiting that episode.

continued…

jethropalerobber’s diary :: ::
When Richard Reid attempted to bring down American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001, Bush was on Christmas holiday.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT:
….
Some additional information to bring to you at this time. We do know that President Bush was notified about this situation earlier today and that he has already had a briefing on the situation. The president, as we have noted, is spending the holiday weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

CNN 12/22/2001

… and the terrorist attack was handled as a law enforcement matter.

The word from the White House, Catherine, is that the administration has been monitoring the situation since it became aware of it late morning according to one administration official. We also know the FBI, (is) the lead investigative agency, at this time.

On December 23, Bush remained on vacation and silent…

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that President Bush continued to monitor the situation and receive updates at Camp David. Bush has not issued any statements about the incident.

Boston Globe 12/24/2001

…and Senator Joe Biden, Democratic chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, appeared on Face the Nation with the opportunity to score cheap political points against an administration caught off guard by a terror attack for the third time in the space of 4 months. He made these comments:

“The ability for al Qaeda to coordinate and plan and focus on and carry out long-term devastating attacks in the United States has been badly crippled — not ended, but badly crippled. So we’re a lot better off than we were four months ago, although we’re still going to have this possibility.”

Are you happy now?