An expose of George Bush's failure to pursue Obama;
And the moral bankruptcy of Republican demagogues
In claiming that Bush led the way
May 2, 2011
IF CANTOR REALLY WANTS TO GO THERE.... House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), shortly after President Obama's remarks on Osama bin Laden, issued a related statement. It included this gem:
"I commend President Obama who has followed the vigilance of President Bush in bringing Bin Laden to justice."
There's a fair amount of this rhetoric bouncing around this morning, and it's not especially surprising -- Republicans aren't going to credit President Obama, regardless of merit, so it stands to reason they'll try to bring George W. Bush into the picture.
If this is going to be a new GOP talking point, we might as well set the record straight.
In March 2002, just six months after 9/11, Bush said of bin Laden, "I truly am not that concerned about him.... You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, to be honest with you."
Full quote below:
Q But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.
In July 2006, we learned that the Bush administration closed its unit that had been hunting bin Laden.
Quote from first paragraph of link:
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.
In September 2006, Bush told Fred Barnes, one of his most sycophantic media allies, that an "emphasis on bin Laden doesn't fit with the administration's strategy for combating terrorism."
Inside the Oval Office
President Bush gives journalists a "heads up" about the mid-term elections, among other things.
1:54 PM, Sep 13, 2006 • By FRED BARNES
WE NOW KNOW WHY the Bush administration hasn't made the capture of Osama bin Laden a paramount goal of the war on terror. Emphasis on bin Laden doesn't fit with the administration's strategy for combating terrorism. Here's how President Bush explained this Tuesday: "This thing about . . . let's put 100,000 of our special forces stomping through Pakistan in order to find bin Laden is just simply not the strategy that will work."
And don't even get me started on Bush's failed strategy that allowed bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora.
I'm happy to extend plenty of credit to all kinds of officials throughout the government, but crediting Bush's "vigilance" on bin Laden is deeply silly.
Update: Donald Rumsfeld added this morning that Obama "wisely" followed Bush's lead. He either has a very short memory, or he's lying and hopes you have a very short memory.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_05/029221.php
