I actually got my hopes up a bit when I saw the blog post title at Memeorandum: “The Case Against Marc Thiessen.” At Power Line? Not likely. Sure enough, hopes dashed:
We are proud to have previewed Marc Thiessen’s important new book Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack. We posted Thiessen’s account of his book here. It’s an important book based on Thiessen’s access to classified information deriving from the CIA program of interrogating terrorists that President Obama terminated when he took office.
Today Thiessen appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show with Joe Scarborough. MSNBC analyst Lawrence O’Donnell participated in the questioning of Thiessen before his belligerence caused Scarborough to cut him off, and then again toward the conclusion of Thiessen’s appearance. Given several minutes to frame a crushing question for Thiessen at the conclusion of the interview, this is what O’Donnell came up with:
“Marc, I’m wondering about your own personal experience with torture. I know you grew up in the richest zip code in America, in the Upper East Side. You went to the only boarding school in all of Connecticut that I know of that has its own golf course… And then you went to Vasser. And like all the torture-mongers in the Bush White House, the Cheney family included, you never served a day in the military. Never considered that. I’m wondering, with that background, what is it that gives you an expertise on torture? What makes you love it so much?”
In other words, O’Donnell had no argument other than a silly ad hominem attack against Thiessen. O’Donnell is a disgrace; that MSNBC gives O’Donnell a platform to spout his venom is a disgrace. Something is wrong with both of them. And they both owe Thiessen (and the Cheney family) apologies.
Yeah, like fun they do. Here is another view:
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 changed American politics forever. But in spite of the warning signs raised by the U.S. intelligence community, the Bush administration seemed preoccupied with other issues, aloof to the alleged threat until the day both towers fell.Why then, MSNBC’s liberal host Keith Olbermann asked on Friday night, is it “taboo” to blame the Bush administration for allowing the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on their watch?
His conclusion: For their lack of vigilance and because they “did not prioritize,” President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are to be faulted for the attacks.
RELATED: O’Donnell shouts down ‘enhanced interrogation’ defender
Provoked by former Bush and Rumsfeld speechwriter Marc Thiessen’s allegation that President Obama is “inviting” another attack, Olbermann noted that when President Bush was warned by the CIA that terrorists were targeting the United States and may be planning to use airliners, Bush replied, “All right, you’ve covered your ass now” and proceeded to do nothing about it.
More details about the Olbermann segment, including his interview of O’Donnell (and yes, there was a lot more to it than the part about Thiessen’s personal background), are at Raw Story.
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