BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

A wish

22 comments on A wish

A wish
: The one thing I hope comes out of the 9/11 commission hearings — besides fixing our intelligence operations and preventing future terrorist attacks, but that’s getting to be besides the point, isn’t it? — is seeing John Ashcroft as a sacrificial lamb.

Oh, I know, the odds are slight — nil, actually. But the man didn’t care enough about terrorism. He runs an agency that all agreed is really f’ed up. He is the poster child for the much-reviled Patriot Act. He’s spending more effort going after boobs than bombs. He is the embodiment of the far right-wing of the Bush administration.

If Bush were running a sane campaign, he’d steal the beat from the commission and announce a sweeping overhaul of intelligence, starting with a new head of Justice. If he were running a sane campaign, he’d play to the center of the country and amputate his far right, getting rid of Ashcroft.

But, of course, he is instead playing to the far right with the litany of issues you already know. So Ashcroft won’t go.

But a citizen can dream, can’t he?

22 responses to “A wish”

  1. O'McSomething Avatar
    O’McSomething

    Shorter Ashcroft–
    Clinton’s penis failed to protect us from terror, therefore I’m going to root out every boob in the country.

  2. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    I thought his casting of blame was cowardly, given glass house he lives in. I certainly found it infuriating.

  3. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    How could you demean the Patriot Act when it comes to terrorism? The Act repealed the law put in place by the Clinton Administration that disallowed the sharing of information between agencies! Ashcroft did a great job making that evident in yesterday’s hearings. If the Patriot Act were in place before 9/11 there would have been a much better chance of preventing the attacks.
    Although I totally disagree with Ashcroft’s attack on porn, I think he has done a good job when it comes to domestic security. And I think he has improved the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations concerning terrorism. The Patriot Act has not given the Feds unlimited and unfettered access to our prvate lifes, you still need a court order.
    I don’t care if Ashcroft goes because his statements on porn are way over the top, but you can’t bemoan his efforts on terrorism.

  4. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Mike: I am not a Patriot Act paranoid. I didn’t want to get into it all again as I wrote this post before rushing out of the house this morning. I have some mixed feelings about it and its enforcement. But I absolutely support strong action against domestic sources of terrorism and I am fine with much of what the act does and I also don’t complain when, for example, an airline hands over data on customers; I say that’s just fine. We need to recognize that we are at war and the front is at our front doors. Well, now you see why I didn’t want to get into all this. It’s still true that politically, the Patriot Act and Ashcroft are baggage and if that helps get rid of Ashcroft, I’d be happy.
    j

  5. O' Avatar
    O’

    The Act repealed the law put in place by the Clinton Administration that disallowed the sharing of information between agencies!
    Mike: Source? What law was that?

  6. paul a'barge Avatar
    paul a’barge

    “…I didn’t want to get into it all again…”
    and
    “…get rid of Ashcroft…”.
    Come on, admit it. You’re off on an unthoughtful, bitter jihad here.
    You usually do better than this. You’re just taking cheap shots here. Take the time, think this through and tell us all precisely what you would do differently than Ashcroft in defending Americans against their enemies.

  7. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    O’,
    Sorry I guess I figured people commenting here would know what happened during yesterday’s 9/11 commission hearings. Read the transcript and the memo declassified by Ashcroft that was written by commission member Jamie Gorelick.
    Also, read posts and links from yesterday’s http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner. They give all the links and commentary necessary.

  8. O' Avatar
    O’

    Ashcroft said lots of things about walls and stuff, but you are saying there was some sort of law. What law was that? Lots of memos have been mentioned in the course of these proceedings, but exactly what “law [was] put in place by the Clinton Adminsration that disallowed the sharing of information”?
    Sorry Mike, I don’t generally consider the opinions voiced over at the Corner to be “all the links and comments necessary” on very many subjects.

  9. O' Avatar
    O’

    Hey Mikey–Try a little taste of slate for a change. Just try it. You might like it.
    Before Ashcroft took the stand, it had been an interesting day of hearings, and not just for Pickard’s revelations. This morning, Janet Reno, the attorney general in the Clinton administration, disputed the notion that legal and structural impediments made it impossible for anyone to have stopped the 9/11 attacks. In the months leading up to the millennium, the FBI and CIA shared intelligence information, to fruitful effect. They’ve cooperated in some circumstances, she said

  10. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Trying to insult me by calling me Mikey there O’? Nice try.
    Slate is in my favorites folder. I like reading from different points of view. The corner simply provided you with the sources and links you requested. Read the memo, it sort of contradicts what Reno was saying.

  11. O' Avatar
    O’

    I’m not trying to insult you, Mike, I just think of things that strike me funny sometimes. I like to read lots of different POVs, too. That is why I like blogs and commenting on all different kinds of them. I might even post on my own one day. But you still haven’t given any reference to the Clintonian Law you mentioned. Just one link from you posted here is all I ask. You brought it up.

  12. KMK Avatar
    KMK

    Did anyone read Gorelick’s memo? I’m not a big fan of Ashcroft but holy hat she shouldn’t even be on the commision. http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document_1995_gorelick_memo.pdf
    This was nice to see 9/11 KIN PRAISE CONDI
    http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/18769.htm

  13. Angelos Avatar
    Angelos

    The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed in 1978. A typical government CYA overreaction to a typical government scandal.
    From Stewart Baker, Slate, last December:
    “That “wall”

  14. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    O’, here’s the link:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document_1995_gorelick_memo.pdf
    Maybe I misspoke when I said law. I should have phrased it as a legal requirement as Andy McCarthy does on the corner (which I mentioned in my first post in response to your query).

  15. O' Avatar
    O’

    Yeah Mike, no maybes about it, you misspoke. And sorry to dispute Mr. McCarthy, but no “law” means no “legal requirement”. Thanks for the link to one of many memos that have been submitted to the 9/11 committee. I just wonder how many people who read all the “links and comments necessary [to the folks over at NRO’s Corner]” come away with false ideas about legal requirements evidenced by statements like “The [Patriot} Act repealed the law put in place by the Clinton Administration that disallowed the sharing of information between agencies!”

  16. O' Avatar
    O’

    You know nobody is going to win after the 9/11 commission makes its report after all of this bickering is through. But bickering is good. We got sucker punched on 9/11. We have to learn from all of our mistakes.

  17. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Please O’, do yourself a favor and stop with the discerning tone about NRO and conservatives because of one person’s (mine) framing of an argument.

  18. Andrea Harris Avatar
    Andrea Harris

    I think you mean “derisive”, Mike.

  19. zyclop Avatar
    zyclop

    RE: “running a sane campaign”
    How on earth are you expecting an insane President to run a “sane” campaign?

  20. Harry Holland Avatar
    Harry Holland

    Right wingers don’t ‘own the tone’, Andrea. Stupid is as stupid says.

  21. HarryS Avatar
    HarryS

    Hmm FISA. While not putting into place any laws and only agressively supporting the FISA wall, Reno severely blundered. After the 1993 attack on the WTC much of the problem of lack of imformation sharing between criminal and intelligence organs of the US was exposed for the AG to see. That is if she had cared to look. And I don’t think Reno had or has any high ethical standing or regard for the law whatsoever. Ruby Ridge and Waco told me that much. I think Reno and Gorelick protected that wall so ferociously because, like a lot of Clinton appointees, they loathed the intelligence community as much as the military. Her whole tenure was spent deflecting and neutering investigations aimed a Democratic misbehavior. The whole mess was a morass of liberal and bureaucratic stupidity. And everyone should know that you can’t fix stupid.
    BTW Reno didn’t waste her and the government’s time, as I think Ashcroft is doing, on pornagraphy. No she spent her time running tanks through regilious compounds and allowing the FBI to shoot a 15 yr old teenager, his dog, and his mother while she was holding her baby because the AG was a rabid anti-gun nut and control freak. Reno deserves no free ride and should have nothing but scorn and rebuke heaped upon her.

  22. Sandy P Avatar
    Sandy P

    I thought parts of the Patriot Act were originally drafted or pushed by Reno and her office? W only tweaked them????