(U-WIRE) - Ah. Fresh meat.
Election-year mudslinging contests tend to get boring. But this week, the American public is being served a steaming plate of controversy.
Accusations of a witch hunt for Saddam Hussein led by the Bush administration and a narrow focus before Sept. 11, 2001, are heating up the nightly news.
Former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke is broadcasting a get in the ring message to President Bush and his cabinet. Clarke hit an artery with a sensitive public, and the liberal news media crowd went wild.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice's interview on 60 Minutes did little to appease the carnivorous appetites of an election-year Democratic Party. After conceding to public pressure, Rice will testify in public and under oath today regarding intelligence before and after the World Trade Center fell.
The microscope of who to blame primarily is falling upon the Bush administration. To balance the scales, the Clinton administration also is receiving a passing glance.
The public wants to know how this security was breached and if we are going after the right people.
What I want to know is what the Clinton and Bush administrations were doing while the terrorists were plotting?
Here are a few reasons I think these administrations failed to address the problem before the fact:
THE CLINTON YEARS
When Clinton was shuffling through CIA intelligence gathered on terrorist cells, the O.J. trial took top priority over all other matters.
After the trial was over, Clinton meant to turn his focus back to intercepting terrorists. But it was between reading a long report from the FBI or practicing the saxophone.
With the Letterman show coming up, the saxophone took precedence.
After Letterman, the whole Monica Lewinsky thing took up time. Defining the word is is a lot harder than it sounds.
When the code of is was finally broken, Clinton was keeping his eye on Hillary. The little cheating incident gave her the idea that she had free license to be even more devious and manipulative than before.
Bill knew she was the only person slimier than he, and it took hours out of his day to keep up with her.
Intercepting terrorists - who had the time?
BUSH YEARS TO PRESENT
When Bush took the reins, he still was trying to figure out how Al Gore got more votes than he did. After weeks of deep thinking, Bush decided to shrug it off and call it dumb luck.
After the preparation of his State of the Union speech, Texas George was ready to take on foreign policy. Adamant about preventing terrorism, he carefully listened to intercepted terrorist communications.
Unfortunately, his mistaking a terrorist's conversation for a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Austin slowed things down.
After Bush learned the difference between Spanish and Arabic, he vowed to gather information at any cost.
Then the unthinkable happened, and we were attacked on our own soil.
Like a John Wayne of the 21st century, Bush promised to seek and eliminate the terrorist groups responsible.
He stayed on track for a while and led our country like a true hero. Then he got distracted when Rosie O'Donnell got married and has been confused ever since.
Jokes aside, every administration is responsible for Sept. 11.
People want answers, and they deserve them. Regardless of partisan politics, there was negligence in both administrations.
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Kathryn Hollingsworth
