Reprise, Of A Sort



Appearing on C-Span's Washington Journal, powerful anti-income tax fanatic Grover Norquist was caught by Think Progress speculating of President Obama

We got lots of things Obama claims to be for, and we will make — we, the Republicans in the House and Senate — will make him actually make those spending restraints, in order to get the continuing resolution out [for] a week, two weeks, a month. Obama will be on a very short leash, fiscally speaking, over the next four years. He’s not gonna have any fun at all. He may decide to go blow up small countries he can’t pronounce because it won’t be any fun to be here, because he won’t be able to spend the kind of cash he was hoping to.

Where did we hear politicians and pundits previously impugn the motives of a Democratic President with the charge that he might order a military attack to divert attention- or just for funsies?  Oh, yeah:

Clinton came under intense criticism in 1998 by the GOP after he launched an attack on suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. Intelligence indicated bin Laden and his top associates were meeting at a training camp when U.S. missiles were fired at it, just weeks after al Qaeda terrorists bombed U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The attack was launched on the same day Lewinsky, a former White House intern, wrapped up her testimony before a grand jury investigating whether Clinton lied under oath about their relationship or encouraged anyone else to do so.

"During that time when the attack was launched in Afghanistan and Sudan, there was a movie out called 'Wag the Dog,' " Cohen testified Tuesday. In the movie, an administration launched a fake war as a political ploy. "There were critics of the Clinton administration that attacked the president, saying this was an effort on his part to divert attention from his personal difficulties.

The former Secretary of Defense added "I would like to say for the record under no circumstances did President Clinton ever call upon the military and use that military in order to serve a political purpose."

The military attack ordered by Bill Clinton was denounced by many individuals who were obsessively hostile toward the 42nd President- or were blind to the danger presented to the U.S.A. by Islamic extremists.  The 9/11 commission's report noted

After launching cruise missile strikes against al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for the embassy bombings, the Clinton administration applied diplomatic pressure to try to persuade the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to expel Bin Ladin. The administration also devised covert operations to use CIA-paid foreign agents to capture or kill Bin Ladin and his chief lieutenants. These actions did not stop Bin Ladin or dislodge al Qaeda from its sanctuary.

Alas, the Clinton Administration applied insufficient pressure to destroy Al Qaeda's base camps in Afghanistan or Sudan, the incoming Bush Administration virtually ignored the problem, and disaster ensued on 9/11/01.   And now Grover Norquist, whose puppets in the G.O.P. deserve a great deal of the blame for the soaring national debt, says President Obama may "blow up small countries" because "he won’t be able to spend the kind of cash he was hoping to."  Pretty clever: Norquist demands low taxes; Republican members of Congress vote unanimously for the past 22 years against raising income taxes; the national debt climbs to unprecedented levels as Bush 43 cuts taxes again and again while we fight two wars; and Norquist claims the Democratic President may bomb countries to avoid dealing with the debt Grover arguably did more than anyone to create.

And no, other than CAP and a few other liberal bloggers, he won't get called out for it.




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