Wednesday, July 16, 2003

The storm season has begun
I was puzzled last Friday by Tenet’s willingness to fall on his sword and take the blame for Bush’s uranium lie in the state of the union address. It didn’t seem likely to me that he would take one for the team, mostly because he’s not part of the team. My wife suggested that Tenet taking a bullet that so clearly had someone else’s name on it may have been necessary to hold back some of the forces intent on politicizing the intelligence process even further than it has been.

There is clearly more to the relationship between the intelligence community and the administration than meets the eye (or at least the eye without a very high security clearance). The yellowcake uranium is a very tiny part of the whole and I think it will turn out to be fairly insignificant compared to the whole—sort of like that “second-rate burglary” in a Washington hotel in 1972. If the press and the Democrats keep the pressure up, I think we will be in for some very interesting revelations in the coming weeks. I also think Karl Rove will try to stage a major distraction. It should be interesting.

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