Has Mike Doherty Forgotten 9/11?

by: Hopeful

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 09:28:17 PM EDT

"Whether it's the Ocean Grove dispute or another poll, it's a constant agitation of society much like former President Bill Clinton's `wag the dog' antics to keep the heat off of his personal indiscretions,"

The "wag the dog" attack was the 1998 attack on Osama bin Laden, as documented in Chapter 4 of the 9/11 Commission Repott:

At the time, President Clinton was embroiled in the Lewinsky scandal, which continued to consume public attention for the rest of that year and the first months of 1999. As it happened, a popular 1997 movie, Wag the Dog, features a president who fakes a war to distract public attention from a domestic scandal. Some Republicans in Congress raised questions about the timing of the strikes.

Remember this the next time a conservative says liberals are soft on terrorists.  Let's see if the media picks up on this one. 

More from the 9/11 Commission:

The failure of the strikes, the "wag the dog" slur, the intense partisanship of the period, and the nature of the al Shifa evidence likely had a cumulative effect on future decisions about the use of force against Bin Ladin.