[lbo-talk] Bush interview

[Dwayne Monroe]

I thought Russert asked surprisingly 'tough' questions
within the small space permitted for real reportage in
big-biz media.  It could have been a love fest in
which 'how do you keep your hair so shiny oh mighty
Autarch?' would have been the high point.  Russet
acquited himself well under the circumstances.

Even so, the overall effect was yet another journey
into the surreal simplicity of G. W. Bush thought.

The administration in general, but Bush / Cheney in
particular, use the Sept-11 we're-fighting-a-new-war
reference with such monotonous consistency it wouldn't
surprise me to hear Bush say, with a silly-ass smirk,
'the evildoers are being dealt with' if asked for the
time of day.


>From the start, alert viewers knew, despite new
questions being on the table, that they'd been down
this road with the Prez unit before:

Russert: On Friday, you announced a committee,
commission to look into intelligence failures
regarding the Iraq war and our entire intelligence
community.  You have been reluctant to do that for
some time.  Why?

President Bush: Well, first let me kind of step back
and talk about intelligence in general, if I might. 
Intelligence is a vital part of fighting and winning
the war against the terrorists.  It is because the war
against terrorists is a war against individuals who
hide in caves in remote parts of the world,
individuals who have these kind of shadowy networks,
individuals who deal with rogue nations.  So, we need
a good intelligence system.  We need really good
intelligence.

So, the commission I set up is to obviously analyze
what went right or what went wrong with the Iraqi
intelligence.  It was kind of lessons learned.  But
it's really set up to make sure the intelligence
services provide as good a product as possible for
future presidents as well.  This is just a part of
analyzing where we are on the war against terror.

There is a lot of investigations going on about the
intelligence service, particularly in the Congress,
and that's good as well.  The Congress has got the
capacity to look at the intelligence gathering without
giving away state secrets, and I look forward to all
the investigations and looks.

Again, I repeat to you, the capacity to have good
intelligence means that a president can make good
calls about fighting this war on terror.

[...]

full transcript at -

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618/

...

DRM