Touchy, Touchy

Wow, the White House is apparently very sensitive about George Tenet's new book. Of course, there's a pattern here. One of the defining characteristics of the Baby Party is how they are hyper-sensitive to any criticism. Whether it's Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, John DiIulio, Joseph Wilson, Tenet, or dozens more, they have to respond to these disagreements with dishonest smear tactics and angry tirades. It's a sure sign of an Administration that has something to hide, that they must resort to such divisive measures.

On Tenet, who's simply pushing back against being blamed for 9-11 and no WMDs in Iraq and "slam dunk" in the first place, Dan Bartlett came out of the gate firing this morning:

WASHINGTON - A senior White House counselor on Friday dismissed former CIA Director's George Tenet portrait of a Bush administration that rushed to war in Iraq without serious debate. "The president did wrestle with those very serious questions," Dan Bartlett said.

Asked about Tenet's upcoming book, excerpts of which were reported Friday in The New York Times, Bartlett called the former CIA chief a "true patriot" but suggested he might have been unaware of the breadth of the prewar debate that led Bush to dismiss other options, such as diplomatic means, for reining in Saddam Hussein.

"I've seen meetings, I've listened to the president, both in conversations with other world leaders like (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair as well as internally, where the president did wrestle with those very questions," Bartlett said on NBC's "Today" show. "This president weighed all the various proposals, weighed all the various consequences before he did make a decision."

Yes, it was a studious, deliberative, measured process that Mr. Bush had:

As he marched the nation to war, Bush presented himself as a Christian man of peace who saw war only as a last resort. But in a remarkable though little noted disclosure, Time magazine reported that in March 2002 – a full year before the invasion – Bush outlined his real thinking to three U.S. senators, “Fuck Saddam,” Bush said. “We’re taking him out.”

That's called "weighing the various proposals."

It's not the disingenuousness of the claims, but the hypersensitivity to any criticism whatsoever, that gives away the "tell" of the White House. They now they're wrong, so they come out fighting at the slightest provocation. It's almost sad.