Sometimes when I keep on an issue like the Clark/McCain brouhaha, readers will write in and say things like, “It’s a losing issue.” “Drop it.” “It isn’t helping Obama.” And so forth. But that’s not our issue. I leave it to the campaigns to manage the press cycle. We have a different set of priorities. And in this case I want to come back to Clark’s comments because I’ve heard from a number of people saying that it’s clear Clark was denigrating McCain’s service or heroism because he referred not to his time as a POW or as someone who endured torture, but rather as someone who got “shot down.” By pointing to this specifically Clark was denigrating McCain’s service or more specifically his skills as a pilot.
But that doesn’t make any sense if you’re one of the people who’ve actually watched the interview because the words are actually chosen by Bob Schieffer, host of Face the Nation.
Clark is in midst of arguing that McCain has never been in a position of executive authority in wartime. And then they have this back and forth …
As you can see, Schieffer says ‘getting shot down’ as one of McCain’s qualifications and Clark says he doesn’t think that’s a qualification for being president.
Now, do I think this analysis of what was actually said is going to change the popular impression of what happened at this point? Not really. The conventional wisdom has already congealed. But as long as we’re on the durable and ascertainable ground of what was actually said, I don’t think there’s really any question. Clark’s point was unassailable. And to say he was attacking McCain’s service — as opposed to saying it didn’t necessarily make him the better candidate for president — is clearly not the case.
Last night I told you about BMW Direct, the DC political consultancy that appears to split their time between fundraising for actual GOP elected officeholders, who are mainly white, and raising money for what appear to be phantom candidates, who also seem to be disproportionately African-American, that never gets spent on the candidates’ races but rather gets plowed back into BMW Direct. Now it turns out that a few months ago, Roll Call (sub. req.) found them operating a similar scheme with some called Freedom’s Defense Fund.
Since 2004, BMW has raised $1.1 million for Freedom’s Defense Fund. But, perhaps explaining why Freedom is so down on its luck these days, a mere $50,000 was actually given to candidates — which is after all, the main point of a PAC.
McCain says Jim Webb should stop criticizing him too — says Obama’s behind it.
I’d missed Lanny Davis. He just showed up on Fox to be outraged about Wes Clark.
Storied CIA vet Milt Bearden …
The administration’s claims of having “saved thousands of Americans” can be dismissed out of hand because credible evidence has never been offered — not even an authoritative leak of any major terrorist operation interdicted based on information gathered from these interrogations in the past seven years. All the public gets is repeated references to Jose Padilla, the Lakawanna Six, the Liberty Seven and the Library Tower operation in Los Angeles. If those slapstick episodes are the true character of the threat, then maybe we’ll be okay after all.
When challenged on the lack of a game-changing example of a derailed operation, administration officials usually say that the need to protect sources and methods prevents revealing just how enhanced interrogation techniques have saved so many thousands of Americans. But it is irresponsible for any administration not to tell a credible story that would convince critics at home and abroad that this torture has served some useful purpose.
Read the rest of Bearden’s article here in the Washington Independent.
Oy. Word to the wise. If you’re a high profile officeholder running for reelection, don’t let your webmasters post links on your site to gay-themed (as in making fun of gays) fratboy youtube videos.
More in a moment.
In today’s episode of TPMtv, the very best of MSM hyperventilation about Wes Clark’s non-demeaning comments about John McCain …
High-res version at Veracifier.com.
CQ now rates Rep. Vito Fossella’s Staten Island seat as a probable Democratic pickup. That and the morning’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.