Transcript Excerpts
DAVID BROOKS: Well, not so well. But, I mean, to me, the whole reaction was overwrought.
We have all these geniuses who are, post hoc, that they could have figured out if only they were in place, sort of a hysteria calling for Janet Napolitano's head, calling for this person's head.
The fact is that we have this vast bureaucracy. The NSA, National Security Agency, alone captures four times as much data per day as exists in the Library of Congress. They do a pretty good job of reducing the risk of terrorist attack. Occasionally, somebody gets through. That is going to inevitably happen.
We should have some sort of steady, level-headed response. That is the sign of a resilient nation. We don't have it. We have had the last week of the whole country going -- or at least the punditocracy -- going into semi-hysteria over this. And it's just not the sign of a serious country. And I think nobody has covered themselves with glory in all this.
JEFFREY BROWN (News Hour): Hmm. Mark, not a serious country.
MARK SHIELDS: Boy, not a serious country, that is a serious charge.
I do -- I mean the point David makes about -- that -- and that NSA information, which is four times as much as the Library of Congress, is just from cell phones and wireless. I mean, so, it is a remarkable amount of information to be processed.
But I think there is cause for concern, and there's no doubt about it, not -- there has been partisan overreaching, excessive and indefensible. But, at the same time, there were signs. There were warnings here.
And we're supposed to have, eight years later, some sense of communication, and especially some sense of urgency. And I think that was missing. And I think the president recognizes that. The president says, there was a systemic failure. He is accepting accountability from his administration. And I think it is serious. And I think it is something that has to be addressed.
JEFFREY BROWN: And, then, what about the opposition finger-pointing...
MARK SHIELDS: Well, no, I will be happy to address the opposition.
I do think there is no question that Secretary Napolitano's answer was an attempt -- misguided, inept -- to assure people who were traveling over Christmas that it was going to be safe, and which was a legitimate intention, but not a sensible assessment of the situation.
And I do think that what we are seeing as a result of this is, we're still in silos, we're still in smokestacks, as far as intelligence is concerned. I mean, we did have 9/11 recommendations that did require the director of national intelligence to coordinate all this.
I mean, there were failures at each level, I mean, whether the State Department on the visa, all the way along the line, the CIA on information, whether as to whether in fact this fellow was going to be a real problem. We had specific information from his dad.
So, I think there is cause for concern. I think the president has shown restraint. I mean, I really do. I mean, he insisted that he wouldn't do anything until the facts are there. But he addressing it as a serious problem.
JEFFREY BROWN: You think he got it right?
MARK SHIELDS: I do think he did get it right. And David's point is, as always, thoughtful.
JEFFREY BROWN: But wrong.
MARK SHIELDS: No, and, usually, about 85 percent incisive.
MARK SHIELDS: No. But, as far as the other side is concerned, I mean, Jim DeMint comes in, the senator from South Carolina, comes in for special treatment in this New Year's season. I mean, this is a man who has held up the appointment of the director of the Transportation Safety (sic) Administration, which is charged with airport safety and the travel -- or the safety of travel, and he said for one person -- reason.
And that is that he wants to get from this man, to extract from him, a guarantee that employees of the TSA will not be able to collectively bargain, Jeffrey. And, I mean, if this -- it's based on some know-nothingness that says, oh, they will -- union bosses will interfere with the safety of the country.
Now, this is a man who is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, has a master's in business from Clemson, was 50 years old on 9/11. When -- to go in to save, after the Twin Towers were leveled, the trapped and the terrified, 343 New York firefighters walked into the jaws of death and the fires of hell, and every one of them was a dues-paying union member.
And, I mean, the fact that, somehow, he associates that these people are not public servants, not interested in public safety is probably partisanship of the narrowest and the most unforgiving nature.
JEFFREY BROWN: Right. I was just going to bring him up, because he was...
DAVID BROOKS: Again, the idea, to me, this is endemic in the nature of this kind of warfare. We're going to have failures. And it's just because you can't predict the future.
The idea that it was, as Dick Cheney said, as the result of some ideological failure is also silly.
JEFFREY BROWN: He said the president was trying to pretend we are not war, was the way he put it.
MARK SHIELDS: This is a president who, much to the consternation of his base and his strongest supporters, will have tripled the number of American troops in Afghanistan, will have doubled the amount spent for the -- in support or aid of the democratic country of Pakistan, and hardly somebody who has been indifferent to it.
And, I mean, Dick Cheney would do well to heed the counsel of his alleged superior, the man who put him on the ticket, George W. Bush, who, when asked to criticize President Obama, said, "I owe him my silence."
And, compared to Dick Cheney, George Bush ought to be on Mount Rushmore. And it looks more like that every passing week.
JEFFREY BROWN: If we try to look forward now, how does -- how do these events and the new things you have just talked about, the counterterrorism, the intelligence problems that have now been re-raised, how does that complicate the president's agenda going forward?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, to me, the one lesson is, we will never get out of the paying attention to the Islamic extremism. This is just going to be an issue that will pop up in Afghanistan. It will pop up here at home...
Note, "And, I mean, Dick Cheney would do well to heed the counsel of his alleged superior, the man who put him on the ticket, George W. Bush, who, when asked to criticize President Obama, said, 'I owe him my silence.'" I totally agree, it is a lesson ALL Ultra-Conservative GOP ideologues need to heed.
Also see...
"Republicans Go Bonkers Over Obama and Flight 253" by David Corn, Politics Daily
Richard Reid ring a bell? Especially the Bush Administration response?
ALSO, and more important:
"Obama: Intelligence Failures Allowed Attempted Plane Attack" (includes video), PBS News Hour 1/5/2010
One Excerpt from Transcript
JIM LEHRER: We get three other perspectives now from Ken Button, director of the Center for Transportation at George Mason University -- he's also a professor of public policy there -- Steven Simon, former terrorism specialist at the National Security Council in the Clinton administration -- he's now with the Council on Foreign Relations -- and Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security in the Bush administration. He's now director of the Aspen Institute's Homeland Security Program.
Mr. Ervin, just a few moments ago, the White House issued a statement, or issued a statement that the president reportedly said to his folks that he met with, in other words, his team, his 12 folks that were there, and he -- he -- the president said this -- quote -- "This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous. We dodged a bullet, but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked. And that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency to finger-pointing, I will not tolerate it."
What do you make of that?
CLARK KENT ERVIN, former inspector general, Department of Homeland Security: I think that's absolutely spot on.
The president was exactly right to say that. He has said essentially in the public statement. You can't fix a problem until you acknowledge it. And the president has said this before. This was a systemic failure. It is the first impulse of government always to downplay crises. That was the first impulse here with the Department of Homeland Security.
And, so, the president is quite right. And the sense of urgency that he conveyed is also important.
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