Did anyone catch Lou Dobbs’ Moneyline last night? Unbelievable.
That George W. Bush believes that he can get away with anything was made clear with his over-the-top appointment of Henry Kissinger to the 9/11 commission in late November.
This time Bush went too far. An absurd appointment for a commission searching for the truth behind the 9/11 attacks, even the New York Times blasted Kissinger’s appointment.
“There can be no place for the kind of political calculation and court flattery that Mr. Kissinger practiced so assiduously during his tenure as Richard Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state. Nor is there any tolerance for the kind of cynicism that Mr. Kissinger applied to the prosecution of the Vietnam War.”–November 29, 2002.
But the most political, most dishonest administration in American history found an ally in Lou Dobbs last night, who tried to prevent an elderly Kissinger from giving away the store.
Fawning over Kissinger, Dobbs assailed the “principally partisan interests”–like the 9/11 victims’ families–who doubted Kissinger’s commitment to investigate the truth of the events leading up to 9/11, a situation displaying a titanic intelligence failure by the Bush administration and some petty partisan maneuvering.
Bush had been caught asleep at the wheel; and everyone, especially Karl Rove, knows that this could mortally wound the administration were this to come out displayed on national stage. Hence, enter Kissinger.
Insistence that Kissinger make public his myriad transnational and foreign clients so the American people could feel assured that Kissinger would be objective and diligent, untainted by conflicts of interests, was condemned by an indignant Dobbs fawning all over the man in the five-minute, 32-second interview segment.
“…The fact that you and George Mitchell could fall victim to this kind of, frankly, partisan attack sets the stage for what will be probably–would you not say–more partisan attacks on both Hamilton and Kean. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy sailing for them either. And therefore it looks like they’re going to have a very difficult job of getting to the truth here,” said Dobbs.
Dobbs and Kissinger just want the truth, cutting through the fog of partisanship.
Kissinger responded to this act of ingratiation by offering his preordained conclusion of the very matters he was supposed to investigate–improbably veering so far off message that even Dobbs’ save attempt was too late.
Kissinger responded: “I hope that everybody has his partisanship out of his system now. And that people remember that this was an event that was totally unexpected to the American public; that it came from a direction that nobody had ever thought of. And that it was the first attack on the continental United States…” (Dobbs quickly interrupts)
“What is the first question–were you still chairing the commission–that you would have thought to ask and to answer?” asked Dobbs.
From a direction that nobody had ever thought of? There is a mountain of evidence that flying jets into buildings was thought of, presented to Bush before 9/11, and not acted upon; as well as the Clinton administration handing over other strategic plans to fight Al-Qaida, similarly not acted upon. These are among the questions that Kissinger and the commission were supposed to investigate and answer objectively and thoroughly wherever the truth would lead them, with no biases.
Dobbs on-air rescue attempt to prevent Kissinger from giving away his obvious bias in favor of the Bush administration was a sight to see. Here was Dobbs changing gears from his commiserating and suddenly and rudely interrupting in mid-sentence the great though now babbling man going way off message.
Could it be that Rove and Bush finessed Kissinger out because Kissinger, getting on in years, has lost his message discipline? Getting past the 9/11 panel, no matter how well stacked with those who will not rock the boat, demands some slick PR savvy and a whole lot of lying. Henry Kissinger may not be quite up to the job anymore.
Mike Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times, and CounterPunch. He can be reached at: maleon@terracom.net
