According to the White House, Richard Clarke was “out of the loop” on terrorism, but none the less, the White House acted on all of Clarke’s recommendations.

Claiming Clarke was out of the loop on terrorism when he was the top counter-terrorism official at the White House is more of an indictment of the administration than Clarke. Cheney implied yesterday on the Limbaugh show that Clarke had been demoted, working in Cybersecurity instead of being the head man who would have been involved in general terrorism. How could Clarke know anything about 9/11 if he was working on Cyberterrorism? Simple- he didn’t switch jobs until well after 9/11. Limbaugh’s followers are now left with the mistaken impression that Clarke was demoted when Bush took office. Certainly one of many pieces of misinformation Limbaugh’s listeners were fed yesterday.

The most obvious (and laughable) result of this declaration is that they can no longer scape-goat Clarke for 9/11 because he was out of the loop, right?

Calling Clarke’s book a partisan attack doesn’t wash either- he worked for two Republican White Houses before he worked for Clinton. He was a registered Republican. He would have been shooed out the door with the Clinton administration if it had been any other way.

The funny thing is, with all the bluster from the White House- those of us who have been paying attention knew all this stuff already. Clarke is just adding more detail.

We knew that the White House wanted to take Saddam out from day one
We knew September 11th was a convenient excuse to invade Iraq.
We knew Iraq wasn’t a threat to us.
We knew the White House couldn’t prove a connection between Saddam and Osama.
We knew they were lying the whole time.

Can the Bush White House keep all these deceptions from the American public past the November elections? I keep seeing these things months before they’re printed in the Times or the Post- why the hell is that? When a steady stream of lies is just a way of life at the White House it’s time to clean house.

How many lives will we allow the White House to destroy in order to keep their dirty laundry under wraps?

As they try to destroy Clarke it’s worth noting that the White House delayed publication of his book for three months and now is complaining about the “suspicious timing” of it’s release. These guys have no shame.