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May 14, 2004

Ryan Lizza is wrong

By Jim Dallas

Brad DeLong references this note from The New Republic's Ryan Lizza:

...the White House counterterrorism job is the bureaucratic equivalent of the drummer in Spinal Tap. Bush has now gone through five of them since 9/11. (Clinton had one.) Like Spinal Tap's drummers, who often choked on their own vomit or spontaneously combusted, Bush's counterterrorism aides all seem to disappear under unusual circumstances. First there was Richard Clarke. We all know what happened to him. He left his post in disgust and wrote a book arguing that Bush paid no attention to terrorism before 9/11 and that the war in Iraq was a monumental diversion from the fight against al Qaeda and a gift to jihadist recruiters across the Muslim world. Clarke was replaced by General Wayne Downing, a pro-Iraq war hawk. Nonetheless, he had a similar experience, lasting a total of 10 months before abruptly resigning in frustration at how the White House bureaucracy was responding to the terrorist threat. Downing was replaced by two men, General [John] Gordon, who lasted ten months before moving on to his homeland security job, and Rand Beers, who resigned in disgust over the Iraq war after seven months in his post. His experience was searing enough that he immediately joined the Kerry campaign. Beers was replaced by Townsend, who has now been tapped to replace Gordon, who is apparently resigning under circumstances similar to Clarke and Beers. (Got all that?)

While comparing Bush counterterrorism chiefs to Tap drummers is an accurate and fitting analogy, I feel compelled to point out that no Spinal Tap drummer choked on "his own vomit."

There was, however, a drummer that choked on someone else's vomit:

Marty: Your first drummer was uh.... Nigel: The peeper.... David: Joe stumpy Pepys...great great...uh...tall blond geek.. with glasses uh... Nigel: Uh.. good drummer. David: Great look, good drummer. Nigel: Good, good drummer.... David: Fine drummer.... Marty: What happened to him? David: He died, he, he died in a bizarre gardening accident some years back. Nigel: It was really one of those things...it was...you know...the authorities said...you know...well best leave it unsolved, really...you know. Marty: And he was replaced by...uh.... David: Stumpy Joe - Eric Stumpy Joe Childs. Marty: What happened to Stumpy Joe? Derek: Well, uh, it's not a very pleasant story..but, uh, David: He's passed on. Derek: he died. uh...he choked on..the ac- the official explanation was he choked on vomit. Nigel: It was actually, was actually someone else's vomit. It's not.... David: It's ugly. Nigel: You know. There's no real.... Derek: You know they can't prove whose vomit it was...they don't have the facilities at Scotland Yard.... David: You can't print, there's no way to print a spectra-photograph Nigel: You can't really dust for vomit.

Perhaps it would disturb normal people that I remember this. Oh well.

Posted by Jim Dallas at May 14, 2004 07:54 PM | TrackBack

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