So what do you think is more despicable, a Republican who sends instant messages and emails to UNDERAGE boys (His name Florida Republican Mark Foley), and is part of the “Hate the Gays” and “Won’t somebody please think of the children” party, or the fact that same party knew that one of it’s member may be a gay pedophile, and do what they can to cover it up?

That is what the Republican leadership in the House was tiring to do before the news story broke, cover it up. Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner and Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert knew this was going on long before the story broke. They allowed this sick pervert to roam the halls of Congress. This is worst than the Gay male prostitute that was running around the Bush White House by the name of Jeff Gannon.

From the the Washington Post:

The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley’s GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of some “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and that Hastert assured him “we’re taking care of it.”

It was not immediately clear what actions Hastert took. His spokesman had said earlier that the speaker did not know of the sexually charged e-mails between Foley and the boy.

All that can be said right at this moment is that the GOP is imploding, they have build nothing more than a house of cards. They have used fear and corruption to hold it up, not great leadership, and it is unable to stand up to the winds of change.

In the Friday news dump, where the Republicans dump everything that you should know about was this, Florida Republican House Member Mark Foley resigned in shame after it broke that he has been sending emails, and instant messages to teenage boys asking them to strip and saying things like, “Do I make you a little horney?”. WEEWWWWWW.

Now in what makes this so Republican-like is the fact that this is the creep that was also the leader of the “Exploited Children Caucus”, and yet he was exploiting children, the GOP is a bunch of sick son of a bitches, hypocritical to the soul (assuming god gives them to evil people)

From CNN, Bolds are mine

The House voted unanimously to launch an investigation into messages allegedly sent by former Rep. Mark Foley to a male teenage page.

The six-term Florida Republican abruptly ended his congressional career Friday after public disclosure of the notes.

The House vote came after the congressman who oversees the page program revealed he had learned about the exchange late last year and subsequently warned Foley to be "mindful" of his behavior.

Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, learned about the matter during the spring, but "there wasn’t a level of alarm because there was no specificity about the contact," an aide to Boehner told CNN.

Boehner blocked a vote on a resolution offered by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that asked the House Ethics Committee to begin a preliminary investigation into Foley’s conduct and the GOP leadership’s "response" to it.

The California Democrat’s resolution would have called for an investigation of "when the Republican leadership was notified and what corrective action was taken."

Instead, Boehner made a motion that the Foley matter be sent to the House Ethics Committee, which passed 409-0.

Pelosi said her resolution forced the GOP leadership to send the matter to the Ethics Committee for a bipartisan investigation.

In his e-mails, Foley purportedly asked the page to send a picture of himself to the congressman, asked the teen what he wanted for his birthday and made comments about another former page in which Foley allegedly said he acted "much older than his age" and was "in really great shape."

The teen who said he received the e-mails forwarded them on another party, who had a House e-mail address, and commented that he found the request for his picture "sick." The former page said Foley had asked for his e-mail address after he gave the congressman a thank-you card.

GOP sources told CNN that Foley’s resignation was prompted in part by concerns that other potentially politically damaging e-mails or information might surface, including exchanges with other pages that were more graphic.

ABC News Friday evening reported details of three exchanges of instant messages sent between teenage male pages and someone using the screen name Maf54, which ABC identified as Foley. The congressman’s initials are MAF, and he was born in 1954.

In one of those exchanges, Maf54 advises the teen to "strip down." In another, when the teen says he’s wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Maf54 replies, "Love to slip them off of you." And in a third, Maf54 asks, "Do I make you a little horny?"

Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates "raise serious questions about the legality and actions" of those officials, according to a draft bipartisan report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee.

The 95-page report, which White House officials reviewed Wednesday evening but has yet to be formally approved by the panel, singled out two of President Bush’s top lieutenants, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, as having been offered expensive meals and exclusive tickets to premier sporting events and concerts by Abramoff and his associates.

In total, the committee was able to document 485 contacts between White House officials and Abramoff and his lobbying team at the firm Greenberg Traurig from January 2001 to March 2004, with 82 of those contacts occurring in Rove¹s office, including 10 with Rove personally. The panel also said that Abramoff billed his clients nearly $25,000 for meals and drinks with White House officials during that period.

Rove, Mehlman, and other White House officials have denied having any close relationship with Abramoff, despite the fact that Abramoff was a "Pioneer" who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Bush’s White House campaigns.

"The documents depict a much closer relationship between Mr. Abramoff and White House officials than the White House has previously acknowledged," committee staff wrote in a three-page summary that accompanied the report. Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman and ranking member of Government Reform, this summer subpoenaed e-mails and billing records from Greenberg Traurig and other firms, including Alexander Strategy Group, which was run by one-time aides to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). They examined more than 14,000 pages of documents from Greenberg Traurig, including 6,600 pages of billing records and 7,700 pages of e-mail.

During the period examined by the committee, Bush administration officials repeatedly intervened on behalf of Abramoff’s clients, including helping a Mississippi Indian tribe obtain $16 million in federal funds for a jail the tribe wanted to build.

Abramoff was able to block the nomination of one Interior Department official using Christian conservative Ralph Reed as a go-between with Rove, according to e-mails between Abramoff and Reed.

Someone better freaken’ pass the message to Bush and Karl, because this new “Let’s blame Clinton for our failures” tactics is not working. Americans squarely blame the Bush administration, and the Republicans that prop him up for the fact that Osama is still a free man.

From the Gallup Website (bolds are mine)

The recent firestorm over former President Bill Clinton’s culpability for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was fueled on Tuesday when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice contrasted President Bush’s efforts to pursue al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with Clinton’s efforts. Clinton has strongly denied various suggestions that his administration missed key opportunities to kill bin Laden and left the Bush administration without a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy. However, Bush — whom Clinton says did nothing about al-Qaeda for the first eight months of his presidency — has the bigger image problem with Americans on the issue.

According to a recent Gallup Panel survey, the American public puts the primary blame on Bush rather than Clinton for the fact that bin Laden has not been captured. A majority of Americans say Bush is more to blame (53%), compared with 36% blaming Clinton.

This comes from ThinkProgess, It needs to be posted everywhere…

The National Intelligence Estimate — “the most authoritative document[] that the intelligence community produces” — was delivered to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in April 2006. It was declassified today. Here’s a key excerpt:

The Iraq conflict has become the ’cause celebre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.

President Bush, August 21 2006:

Vice President Cheney, September 10, 2006:

Transcripts:

Clip 1

BUSH: You know, I’ve heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of “we’re going to stir up the hornet’s nest” theory. It just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

Clip 2

RUSSERT: Here’s what the American people said in a recent poll. Is the U.S. involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan creating more terrorists or eliminating terrorists? And look at that. Overwhelmingly, 54 percent, clear majority, believe we are creating more terrorists.

TEXT:

U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

CREATING MORE TERRORISTS 54%

ELIMINATING TERRORISTS 15%

The New York Times CBS/Poll

CHENEY: I, I, I can’t buy that.

Okay, let’s say a classified report is leaked to the press that says your occupation in Iraq is doing nothing but making us unsafe. You have a few options here, you can say it is not true and that those that believe what the news is telling then is a terrorist. You can also release the report because lets face if, it is not true, no better way to prove it than to unclassified it and prove your right. You also have a third option, to make an unclassified version of the report available and because you control the info, only include the parts that make you look good.

Well the Bush administration, and the Republicans that shield him, tried option one, smear those that believe what they see, but the American people are just not as gullible as they once were. So the Republicans moved to option 3, because the unclassified version (option 2) of the report would be murder to the Administration story. Today the Bush Administration released an unclassified, cherry picked, version of the NIE document, but here is what is so odd, it is just as damming! This is the cherry picked shit, and it makes this administration look like a boob at best.

From the unclassified NIE

• The Iraq conflict has become the ?cause celebre? for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
• The loss of key leaders, particularly Usama Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and al-Zarqawi, in rapid succession, probably would cause the group to fracture into smaller groups. Although like-minded individuals would endeavor to carry on the mission, the loss of these key leaders would exacerbate strains and disagreements. We assess that the resulting splinter groups would, at least for a time, pose a less serious threat to US interests than does al-Qa?ida.
• The increased role of Iraqis in managing the operations of al-Qa?ida in Iraq might lead veteran foreign jihadists to focus their efforts on external operations.

Guys, "external operations" is Bush speak for BLOW YOUR ASS UP AT HOME!!! Bush has not made us safer, he says it himself!

Go and read it, it is only 4 pages.

Well I am glad to know that someone at the United Methodist faith finally took a moment and read what the bible said about this illegal war. I am glad to see that some “Christians” are starting to take back their faith from those that choose to use it to perpetrate sin.

From the United Methodist Church

United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a declaration of peace urging President Bush to pull U.S. troops out of the country.
.

The Declaration of Peace, signed Sept. 21, is described as a call for nonviolent action to end the war in Iraq. The Washington event was one of 350 that will be staged nationwide to promote the peace initiative. The declaration calls for people to “engage in peaceful protests” if there is not a plan for troop withdrawal established and begun by Sept. 21, days before Congress adjourns for the fall elections.

More than 500 groups, almost half of them faith organizations, are involved in the declaration of peace effort, which recently retired Bishop Susan Morrison said includes “acts of moral witness to seek a new course for our country.”

By signing the peace document in front of the White House, the United Methodists and other protesters hoped not only to make a statement but also to influence congressional races in November by forcing candidates to outline where they stand on the war.

Speakers at the Washington rally, which drew about 100 people to Lafayette Square, castigated Bush, accusing him of lying about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction and launching what they called an illegal offensive.

Ftom ThinkProgress

In April, President Bush received the National Intelligence Estimate, which “represents a consensus view of the 16 separate spy services inside government.” NIEs are “the most authoritative documents that the intelligence community produces…and are approved by John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence.”

Here’s what the NIE said, according to the New York Times:

[T]he American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks…The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

On August 21, President Bush held a press conference and told the American people the exact opposite. Watch it:

Digg It!

Transcript:

You know, I’ve heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of “we’re going to stir up the hornet’s nest” theory. It just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

From the Diary of eightball0 on DailyKOS

George Allen’s college football teammates told Salon that they observed him regularly engaging in racist behavior.  He used the ‘n-word’ to refer to his black teammates, said that he liked Virginia because "blacks knew their place," and gave a KKK-inspired nickname of "Wizard" to another teammate. He also stuffed a deer head in a black family’s mailbox–a hate crime.

This should end Allen’s bid for Senate and his presidential aspirations.

A second white teammate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from the Allen campaign, separately claimed that Allen used the word "nigger" to describe blacks. "It was so common with George when he was among his white friends. This is the terminology he used," the teammate said.

George Felix Allen, Jr.: Thrown out of California because he was too racist. He’s too racist for Virginia, too. Let’s throw him out of the US Senate!

• eightball0’s diary :: ::

Two of the teammates were afraid of retaliation.  One brave man, Ken Shelton, a white radiologist and former tight end, went on the record and started jotting down his thoughts.  

Let’s stop disgusting racist George Allen from spreading his filth in our nation’s capitol.  Donate to Webb now!

Should George Allen, who committed a hate crime be allowed to set foot in the Senate chamber? Read what he did, and decide if you would let him in your home:

Shelton said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. "He proceeded to take the doe’s head and stuff it into a mailbox," Shelton said.

Allen’s confederate flag — his noose — ‘macaca’ — all of it not a coincidence but the sign of a man who hates black people (and all non-whites) so much he can’t hide it. He cannot escape his past, and we cannot let him represent Virginia. To refresh your memory:

Allen wore a Confederate flag pin on his lapel in his 1970 graduation picture from a Southern California high school. He hung a noose from a plant in his Charlottesville law office in the 1980s and a Confederate flag inside his home. As governor in the mid-1990s, he alienated some by signing a resolution that designated a Confederate history month in Virginia but did not acknowledge the evils of slavery.

Now we know what those mean.

Allen, 54, said he did not see racial overtones in the Confederate flag.

Liar.

He said he was a rebellious youth and viewed the banner as a "symbol against authority."

Liar.

Reached Monday evening, Allen said that the word had no derogatory meaning for him and that he was sorry. "I would never want to demean him as an individual. I do apologize if he’s offended by that. That was no way the point." Asked what macaca means, Allen said: "I don’t know what it means." He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut. Sidarth said his hairstyle is a mullet — tight on top, long in the back.

Liar.

Allen, in his speech Tuesday, said: "I’ve learned a valuable lesson about the power of words, about how words carelessly chosen, or in my case, even made up, can have a totally unintended meaning and impact for another person from another background or from a different cultural perspective."

Liar. A racist his whole life and a dishonorable man. Let’s show our thanks to his former teammates who showed us the hate that motivates George Felix Allen Jr, and honor their bravery in speaking up. Putting his name on these charges is amazing, especially considering that two former teammates could not–because they are afraid of G. Felix Allen’s bully tactics. Whistleblowers like Ken Shelton are what make this country great, and he’s going to get swiftboated post haste. We cannot let his effort go to waste–by making sure that Jim Webb becomes the next US Senator from Virginia! Donate to Webb now! Get George Allen, a man who committed a hate crime out of the US Senate. [update:] Check out this diary by BB10 and watch Allen non-deny his participation in a picture with a KKK-allied group

From the Washington Post (bolds are mine)

The war in Iraq has become the primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers are increasing faster than the United States and its allies are eliminating the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded.

A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. Rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, it concludes that the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document.

"It’s a very candid assessment," one intelligence official said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. "It’s stating the obvious."

From Agence France Presse (bold are mine)

US spy agencies have dropped a political bombshell six weeks before national elections, with the leak of a classified report concluding that the war in Iraq has spawned a new wave of Islamic radicalism and increased the global threat of terrorism.

The intelligence document on Sunday rocked a central pillar of the Republican Party’s campaign platform ahead of November elections: that the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ouster of Saddam Hussein made America safer, not weaker.

With opinion polls showing President George W. Bush’s party possibly losing control of both houses of Congress in the the mid-term polls, in large part due to unhappiness over the war in Iraq, the report stating categorically the opposite will make for painful reading at the White House.

Bush has argued repeatedly in pre-election speeches that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism and that demands for a US troop withdrawal from the country by the opposition Democrats underscores why the center-left party should not be trusted with the nation’s security.

"The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq," Bush said in one speech on August 31.

Such assertions were looking decidedly shaky Sunday after The New York Times and The Washington Post released details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the most comprehensive assessment yet of the war, based on analyses of all 16 of America’s intelligence agencies.

The report, Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States, says "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," an official familiar with the document told The Times.

The Washington Post said the report described the Iraq conflict as the primary recruiting vehicle for violent Islamic extremists.

"While the US has seriously damaged Al-Qaeda and disrupted its ability to carry out major operations since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, it noted, radical Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.

Connecticut Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont sent the following letter to Sen. Joe Lieberman in advance of Lieberman’s speech tomorrow on Iraq. You can find the letter here, with links to source material, as well as the fact sheet referenced in the letter.

Senator Joseph Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator Lieberman:

As I am sure you have seen, the New York Times today reported that the National Intelligence Estimate in April concludes "that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks." The NIE represents the consensus view of the U.S. government’s 16 major intelligence agencies. The Times notes that the Iraq War is a major "reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology" and cites one intelligence official acknowledging that the NIE "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse." 1 Let me put this news in terms that you can clearly understand: Our own intelligence agencies now confirm that the Iraq War is undermining America’s security and credibility at our nation’s peril.

With this report being released on the eve of your major address on Iraq, I and thousands of other citizens in Connecticut expect to hear your response to this news in your speech, considering you have echoed President Bush’s claim that the Iraq War has made our country safer, and that staying the course will help keep us safe. As the NIE now shows, that is absolutely not the case - in fact, the Iraq War has and continues to unnecessarily endanger U.S. national security. Never again can a political leader claim otherwise, lest they deliberately ignore the concrete facts presented to us by our intelligence agencies.

Senator Lieberman, I sincerely hope you will provide answers to these questions in your speech, because there are many who feel that Time Magazine was correct when it wrote that when it comes to Iraq, "Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he’s completely lost the plot or he knows he’s spinning a line." 2 Clearly, Iraq is the most pressing national issue of our time and like many others, I was perplexed a few weeks ago when you gave a major speech on national security but failed to publicly explain your position on Iraq. As one newspaper editorial said, "Any politician worth his salt should know what he thinks about Iraq, off the top of his head - and he should be willing and able to articulate it." 3 Similarly, thousands of Connecticut citizens are perplexed that you have skipped half of all U.S. Senate votes on the subject, including votes that occurred while you were in Washington, D.C.

At a time of war, our state and our country needs leaders in Congress who are willing to speak frankly with the public and who are willing to fulfill their constitutional obligations to hold the executive branch accountable. Our troops serving in combat and the millions of citizens concerned about this war deserve no less.

…

Oh there is a lot more, you should go read it…

This is going to put a huge damper in the Right-wings “Fear of Terror” Agenda leading up to the November elections. Now that the French has reported that the Saudis believe Osama bin Laden died a month ago of Typhoid in Pakistan, the right-wing neo-cons will need to rush and find a new boogieman to strike fear into its cowardly followers. Do they have enough time to manufacture a new one before November? Also, this blows a huge hole in the "We found Osama" October surprise Karl has planned.

The last month or so Bush has been on his new “Terror Terror Fear” Campaign, hoping that the same tired speech will scare the lemmings to vote at least one more time for the Republican protectors of his illegal acts, but It is not working. The American people are on to him, for the better part of 4 years now Bush and the Republicans that support him have not given two shits about Osama bin Laden, Osama gave Bush, and the Neo-Cons what they wanted, a reason to go into Iraq, and in return Bush gave Osama what he wanted, freedom, a live real-time training camp (Iraq) and the removal of the Air Base we built in Saudi Arabia (Muslim Holy Land), it was a win-win for both the evil bastards.

Here are some quotes from the "President" himself.

"so I don’t know where he is.  You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him" - G.W. Bush (White House), 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him." - G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden’s whereabouts, 3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)

To my few right-wing readers that I know stalk the pages of this site, looking for a spelling error here or there (I know there are a lot) I say to you, when are you going to wake up and love this nation as much as you love Bush and the Republicans? You allowed a very dumb man exploit your very primal urges to be protected when you are scared, you allowed him to goat you into fear, and offer you the “protection”, the only cost to you would be your rights, and your freedom, and you said, “Okay!”

A once great man, Franklin D. Roosevelt (A Democrat I might add) said,

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

You’re all a bunch of cowards, you so need “daddy” to protect you from the bully. You all have destroyed this once great nation because your pussies, plan and simple.

Now to be fair, I lifed this right off of ThinkProgress‘ site, they do such a great job.

Today, President Bill Clinton taped an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, which is scheduled to be aired Sunday. He was told the interview would focus on his nonpartisan efforts to raise over $7 billion to combat the world’s biggest problems.

Early in the interview, Wallace attempted to smear Clinton with the same kind of misinformation contained in ABC’s Path to 9/11. Clinton was having none of it.

ThinkProgress has obtained a transcript of the interview. Here are some highlights –

Wallace repeats Path to 9/11 misinformation, Clinton fights back:

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News Sunday, I got a lot of email from viewers, and I got to say I was surprised most of them wanted me to ask you this question. Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President? There’s a new book out which I suspect you’ve read called the Looming Tower. And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, Bin Laden said “I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of US troops.” Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole.

CLINTON: OK..

WALLACE: …may I just finish the question sir. And after the attack, the book says, Bin Laden separated his leaders because he expected an attack and there was no response. I understand that hindsight is 20/20.

CLINTON: No let’s talk about…

WALLACE: …but the question is why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?

CLINTON: OK, let’s talk about it. I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this arises. I’m being asked this on the FOX network…ABC just had a right wing conservative on the Path to 9/11 falsely claim that it was based on the 9/11 Commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people.

Clinton takes on Fox News bias:

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn’t get him.

WALLACE: Right…

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t…I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked: Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked: Why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth.

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: Tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…

WALLACE: [laughs]

CLINTON: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

Clinton on his priorities and the Bush administration priorities:

CLINTON: What did I do? I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…

WALLACE: [Laughs]

CLINTON: I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get Bin Laden. I regret it but I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. The entire military was against sending special forces into Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter and no one thought we could do it otherwise…We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that Al Qaeda was responsible while I was President. Until I left office. And yet I get asked about this all the time and they had three times as much time to get him as I did and no one ever asks them about this. I think that’s strange.

Read the full transcript (rough) HERE.