CBS, NBC, ABC, WashPost, NYTimes, LATimes and so and so on .....
Another axis of evil, IMO.
On Friday morning’s Fox & Friends, FNC host Greta Van Susteren insisted that her confrontational interview with Dick Morris the night before, over Bill Clinton’s commitment to combat terrorism, only proved how she’s "fair and balanced." But a comparison with how she treated Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright earlier in the week proved the opposite.
Morris, a Fox News contributor himself, came aboard Thursday night to discuss his February 5 Wall Street Journal op-ed about how President Clinton did not show much interest in fighting terrorism. Van Susteren spent the entire eight-minute segment arguing with his first-hand account as a Clinton adviser. She cited New York Times stories about Clinton policy initiatives as proof of Clinton’s efforts. Morris fired back at one point: "No you’re still a CNN person. You’re sitting here, and you’re telling me, never having participated in any of these meetings, never having read the agendas of these meetings, that I’m incorrect when I’m telling you that there was no response and no interest."
Van Susteren countered: "Dick, let me stop you for a second. What I’m confronting you with are facts that at least the New York Times lays out-"
Morris: "Facts that your spin doctors are giving you to spout on this show."
Van Susteren then delivered a classic comeback: "No, I got this out of the New York Times."
I’d bet Van Susteren doesn’t comprehend the irony in that defense.
Three nights earlier, however, Van Susteren only offered a perfunctory challenge to Albright about Clinton policies on terrorism and prompted Albright to explain why she thinks Bush’s terrorism policy is off base. Van Susteren seemed befuddled by how anyone could criticize Clinton’s efforts: "What do you think would provoke Condoleezza Rice to suggest that the Clinton administration pulled its punches?" She soon set up Albright: "As you look back at what the Bush administration is doing, are they doing something that's a fatal flaw, in terms of their strategy, in dealing with these countries?"
Van Susteren displayed her hostility toward Morris’s thesis as opened the February 7 segment of her 10pm EST show, On the Record, by trying to show how Morris has no inside knowledge:
"I want to talk to you about your op-ed pieced in the Wall Street Journal. You say the Clinton administration essentially turned its back on terrorism. Is that right?"
Morris: "Yeah I think it’s true. In his first term. I think in his second term he couldn’t do anything. In his first term, he didn’t want to do anything."
Van Susteren: "All right, first of all let’s figure out, you were working, doing polling for President Clinton right? Not in the administration, right?"
Morris: "Right."
Van Susteren: "So you weren’t involved in the foreign policy decisions, right?"
Morris corrected her, but also showed he’s thinks quite a lot of himself, breaking into a smile during his Stephanopoulos line: "Wrong. I didn’t have security clearance, but the President and I, I was probably the President’s closest advisor for two years. Stephanopoulos says I was President. And we talked about everything, and we talked at length about terrorism...."
Van Susteren contended, in a transcript checked against the tape by the MRC’s Patrick Gregory: "Okay, I did a little research for tonight because I obviously read your op-ed piece, and this is what the New York Times reported about six weeks ago, or less than six weeks ago: ‘President Clinton on Terrorism. 1996, Clinton Administration and the CIA created a virtual station code named ‘Alex’ to track Bin Laden’s activities around the world.’ Obviously, anti-terrorism. ‘July 25, 1996. Clinton put Vice President Al Gore on head of commission on aviation security and safety.’"
Morris: "Let me stop you- "
Van Susteren: "No, wait."
Morris: "Let me stop you right there."
Van Susteren: "I let you talk. No let me go through the list and I’d let you [inaudible]-"
Morris: "You invited me on your show- "
Van Susteren: "I did but you say he didn’t do anything do anything. I’m telling you what I read. ‘August ‘98, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan-’"
Van Susteren and Morris continued their verbal back-and-forth until Van Susteren lectured: "What I can tell you is that he tripled the budget in terms of counter-terrorism between ‘95 and 2000, both the FBI and the CIA. Obviously interested. He signed orders to go out and get Bin Laden, to kill Bin Laden, and I can’t, you know and the fact that he didn’t kill Bin Laden, and we’ve had the entire United States military since September 11th, until we started the bombing in October, we haven’t been able to find-"
Morris interjected with the reality of what he observed, but Van Susteren kept reading from her collection of New York Times quotes: "Year 2000, ‘225 million of Taliban controlled assets blocked in U.S. accounts.’ He also froze, I think, Hamas money. I mean the fact is, Dick, is to say, to make the indictment in the Wall Street Journal that he sort of didn’t care about terrorism may be sort of flashy, but when you look at the facts."
Morris, getting testy: "Greta, Greta, you don’t know a damn thing about these facts because you weren’t there, I was. And let me give you some information."
Van Susteren, assuming if it’s in he New York Times it must be true: "I’m just telling you what’s being reported."
Morris: "In 1995, in 1995, a bill was pending in the United States Senate to require that sanctions be imposed on oil companies or other companies that enhance the Iranian oil industry. Sandy Berger advised a veto. Clinton signed it as well as there was a national security waiver."
Van Susteren: "And that was, and that had to do with the issue of the discretion."
Morris: "Clinton then continued, Clinton then continued to waive the imposition of sanctions the three times that something like that happened. In 1996, when we had the Air 800, when we had the Olympics, and when we had Saudi Arabia, and there was decisive evidence that these were caused by terrorists. Clinton absolutely refused to look at this issue."
Van Susteren: "Dick you can’t say-"
Morris: "Greta how many times have you sat in the White House with Bill Clinton?"
Van Susteren: "Dick, you can’t-"
Morris: "How many times have you participated in domestic meetings with him?"
Van Susteren: "Dick, if you’re going to start talking about terrorism and flight, TWA flight 800, I think most people agree, listen to me, most people agree-"
Morris: "In ‘96, we all thought that was terrorism."
Van Susteren: "But it wasn’t. When you talk about the bombing at the Olympics, that was a single bomber, Eric Rudolph who they think was a suspect."
Morris fired back with a great line: "No you’re still a CNN person. You’re sitting here, and you’re telling me, never having participated in any of these meetings, never having read the agendas of these meetings, that I’m incorrect when I’m telling you that there was no response and no interest."
Van Susteren: "Dick, no wait a second, I’m telling you. Dick, wait a second."
Morris: "We proposed a driver’s license screening system to see if people had their visas expired were wanted by the FBI. That was shot down by Stephanopoulos as being politically incorrect."
Van Susteren: "Alright Dick, let me talk for a second. Dick, stop for a second."
Morris: "We proposed a ban on fundraising by charitable organizations, he wouldn’t do it."
Van Susteren: "Dick, let me stop you for a second. What I’m confronting you with are facts that at least the New York Times lays out-"
Morris: "Facts that your spin doctors are giving you to spout on this show."
Van Susteren: "No, I got this out of the New York Times."
The argument continued for a few more minutes, but I’ll end on the humorous note of Van Susteren’s ‘it can’t be spin because the New York Times reported it’ line.
Now compare Van Susteren’s attitude with her solicitous approach to Madeleine Albright on February 4, the night On the Record debuted. Van Susteren’s inquiries to Albright:
-- "Madame Secretary, Condoleezza Rice seems to suggest that the Clinton administration pulled its punches with terrorism and terrorists. Is that true?"
-- "Besides the issue of lumping those three countries together as the axis of evil, what do you think would provoke Condoleezza Rice to suggest that the Clinton administration pulled its punches?"
-- Picking up on Albright’s criticism of Bush’s "axis of evil" concept, Van Susteren pushed Albright to elaborate: "Now, there's no doubt in my mind that we all have the same goal here, to fight terrorism. But as you look back at what the Bush administration is doing, are they doing something that's a fatal flaw, in terms of their strategy, in dealing with these countries?"
-- "Let me switch gears a little bit. At least one news organization is reporting that al Qaeda terrorists may have targeted your former boss, President Bill Clinton, to kill him, that they found some documents. What do you make of that?"
Van Susteren finished up the interview by asking about the hunt to find reporter Daniel Pearl.
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