Marketer-in-Chief

From the NY Times on the book Bob Woodward should have written a few years earlier:
Mr. Tenet, the man who once told Mr. Bush that it was a “slam-dunk” that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, apparently did not share his qualms about invading Iraq directly with Mr. Bush, according to Mr. Woodward’s account.

But the thing is that Tenet wasn’t making the case that it was a slam-dunk that the weapons were really there; nor was he asked to make one.  Because this incident occurred four months after the Bushies had been making the case for war.  And before going into the final stretch of the marketing campaign, Bush wanted to see the final sales pitch.  Apparently, it was underwhelming and Tenet felt pressured to give his personal assurance that his work was adequate.  But again, he wasn’t assuring that the weapons were there; merely that the sales pitch was convincing.  Tenet, as Yes-Man, felt pressured to say that it was.

And of course, the sad thing is that there is nothing new in this account of Woodward’s.  He already covered this territory in his last book.  But for whatever reason, he never followed up with this stuff, to determine what was really going on.  Nor did he convey the truth that Tenet was making assurances of the sales pitch, not the final product; which he apparently did not believe in.

Out of Control

Also from NY Times we have my two favorite Wacko Rummy passages (emphasis added):
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq — a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon — and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls.

Mr. Rumsfeld reached into political matters at the periphery of his responsibilities, according to the book. At one point, Mr. Bush traveled to Ohio, where the Abrams battle tank was manufactured. Mr. Rumsfeld phoned Mr. Card to complain that Mr. Bush should not have made the visit because Mr. Rumsfeld thought the heavy tank was incompatible with his vision of a light and fast military of the future. Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Card believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was “out of control.”

What an infantile freak.  I’d truly feel sorry for him if not for everything he’s done to us.  

Oh, and I do like how the NY Times writer points out that Bush visiting a tank factory was a political matter.  A few years back, it’s likely they would merely have referred to it as the C-in-C inspecting his equipment.  This is the coverage we should have had years earlier, had the awesome GOP marketing crew not successfully cowed all of our gatekeepers.  And unfortunately, the cowing continues on many key issues.  History will blame us all.