Now comes the incredibly asinine assertion by Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark (he is a lifelong Democrat, right? – that was never really spelled out clearly) that President George W. Bush and his administration were somehow responsible for the attacks of September 11th, 2001. To listen to Clark pontificate, and we have to pay attention because his viewpoint could shift at any minute, one would believe the intelligence community never existed before Bush took office and that he alone created the intelligence problem that existed then and still exists today. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am constantly amazed at how President Bush’s opposition, whether it is the leadership (there’s an oxymoron) of the Democratic Party, the members of the Green Party or the budding socialist movement in this country, can stand at the scene of the crime and point the finger of blame at someone who inherited the problem. It really doesn’t matter what the topic is these days, whether it is the economy, the environment, the energy problem or the attacks of September 11th, to listen to his detractors President Bush and his administration created all of these problems. They have completely compartmentalized the Bush Presidency by building a wall of blindness between now and the eight years of the Clinton Administration’s social program creation, the elevated dependency on said social programs and the decline of everything that has to do with national security and the Pentagon.

The Clinton prosperity of the 1990’s was almost completely based on the hollow promise of the tech stock industries and anyone with half a cranium full of grey matter knows it, yet the Democrats and the Bush detractors lay the blame at President Bush’s feet. The abundance of paper tigers that were the multitude of IPO offerings faded away faster than the newness of a pair of blue jeans after a thousand washings, and in much less time. Many corporations that were leading the charge up the streets of Broad and Wall, past the 10,000 mark and beyond, were merely paper companies, companies that sold no product. They disappeared as quickly as they were created and sold, bloated prices intact. It was genuinely a good thing for Bill Clinton that his term ended when it did otherwise there would have been no laying the blame for the crash of the markets on anyone else but him.

I won’t even go into the permissiveness and the blind eye that was turned away from illegal corporate activity that took place during the 1990’s. One needs only to pay attention to all of the trials regarding the corporate scandals and the prosecutions that are now taking place to realize that all of the criminal activities took place in the 1990’s. This includes Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and all the others that have enraged the American populace. All of these scandals and all of the government assistance by proxy and/or by apathy happened under Bill Clinton’s watch yet the spin doctors of the liberal left insist that somehow then Governor George W. Bush was to blame. Honestly, I never knew a governor, whether from Texas or not, ever had that kind on national influence.

The alphabet media, with no argument from the liberal left, screamed crisis and pointed the fingers of blame at President Bush and his energy policies when the blackout took place in the northeast recently. It didn’t matter that the cause of the problem was an aging electrical infrastructure, an infrastructure that should have been tended to by each and every administration from its inception to present. Somehow in the liberal left’s eyes the only president to bear the blame should be President Bush. It matters not that the eight years of Bill Clinton’s environmental policies neglected the basics of our country’s energy needs, the liberal left cites the fact that President Bush has no energy plan in place and therefore he must be responsible. Of course, it should be noted that the Legislative Branch is still holding up the energy bill that President Bush submitted nearly two years ago. I am sure somehow President Bush is responsible for that too.

Now comes fired General Wesley Clark and his notion that September 11th was somehow aided and abetted by President Bush because of his intelligence ineptitude. If the assertion weren’t so serious and so outrageous it would be funny, really funny. The late night talking heads would be having a field day with it in their monologues, Bill O’Reilly would have it as his Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day (he might anyway) and Dennis Miller would be using it as the flash paper in his linguistic muzzle loader for the next volley at stupidity. But it isn’t funny, it is irresponsible, it is disrespectful, it is slanderous and it is wrong.

During Bill Clinton’s eight long scandal-ridden years in office the intelligence community, under the guise of modernization, significantly reduced the number of actual operatives, actual people, used in the field instead opting to utilize more technological means of acquiring sensitive and vital intelligence information. This reduction in operatives, the proven best means by which intelligence can be acquired and verified, was at Bill Clinton’s pleasure, not George W. Bush’s. This being understood, the security of the United States was compromised well before President Bush took office. The attacks of September 11th were a disaster waiting to happen and facilitated further each and every time a satellite or other piece of information gathering technology was employed over a covert operative. To assert, as Clark has, that President Bush was to blame for the compromised intelligence that opened the door for Osama bin Laden’s seraphs of hell is irresponsible and that is being kind.

Wesley Clark, who was fired by Bill Clinton when he was in office but now championed by his people as their candidate – although not formally so, has demonstrated his ineptitude at the political game. Where anyone with an iota of political savvy would know to skirt an issue if the answer choices could become something of an Achilles heel rather than answer it, Clark has opted for a completely different method of response, he answers the questions championing every angle possible while laying blame for every ill in the mix at the feet of his opponents. Does he support the war in Iraq? He has said that he would have voted for the resolution to support President Bush. Then he didn’t. Then he did again. Would he have supported the $87 billion funding initiative for the stabilization of Iraq? No he wouldn’t have. Then yes he would have. Then no again. Yet we have to pay for the plates that we broke, so yes. This guy does more flip-flopping than a gymnast on crack.

In days of common sense and political realism, the candidacy of Wesley Clark would have gone by the wayside like the campaigns of Ross Perot and Lyndon LaRouche. Sadly, we do not live in a time of common sense and political realism. We live in a time when all someone who aspires to political office has to do is place the blame for the ills of our society at the feet of the office holder they wish to defeat. The media does the rest. Political realism and common sense do not exist in our world today. That in itself is shameful and we only have ourselves to blame for it.

President Bush is not responsible for the attacks of September 11th, 2001, period. Bill Clinton is not responsible for the attacks of September 11th either. These are facts. What Bill Clinton is responsible for is the degradation of our intelligence community’s effectiveness through his gross mismanagement of the intelligence agencies during his watch. Whether this sin of omission will prove to be a contributing factor in our problems today only time will tell. But one thing is for sure, the omissions of duty happened during Bill Clinton’s watch, not during the watch of George W. Bush.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.