Ok,
Today's alleged "Victory" over Condeleeza Rice is nothing of the sort. She is a minnow... it is Cheney and the Shrub* that we need to testify - they are the sharks.
Josh Marshall has made lots of useful comments about this over on his -
http://www.Talkingpointsmemo.com - but the basics can be quickly surmised.
1. We get Condi, but only in return for an agreement never to pester the WH again
2. We get Condi, but only if Cheney and Bush get to testify in secret together without even a tape recorder running.
Now forgive me if I am wrong but they are not going to get to the bottom of this story with a couple of hours with Condi.
Unlike the dimson she is not altogether flaky and likely to be briefable... she will be almost certainly given advance warning on likely lines of questioning if not from Kean from her pal Zelikow. And the format of these hearings is such that nobody seems to be put under any pressure anyway.
But the rest of this deal is the real giveaway.
Basically it is game over here people. The end of the road for this train...
The upcoming June NatCom hearing which was to have been an in detail look at what happened on 9/11 itself is now changing into something else. My guess is that the in house stooge - Condi's pal Zelikow - got a bit blindsided by the Clarke excitement, somehow the commission has been convinced that digging too deep is not in its best interests.
Secondly the conditions set for Condi's testimony. Basically that this is as far as you are allowed to go with the White House have pegged off the upward path of investigation. This leaves only more investigation into lower levels of incompentence which are not sexy enough to keep the heat on.
And then finally there is the real kicker in all this - the strange case of Clarke himself.
Admittedly this scheme seems a little too clever even for Rove, but what if this whole Clarke vs Condi game has been played exactly according to script?
I am not suggesting that Clarke is part of any cover-up but could he perhaps have been used for a greater game. Bottom line - this whole week of events fits perfectly a limited hang out game plan... Bush pleads guilty to something we already knew he was guilty of, playing 911 up in order to invade Iraq. And in return Clarke's heat cauterizes the rapidly festering 911 truth sore.
Condi was always the most obvious target for Clarke supporters to focus on, she was his boss. All she had to do was make BS excuses and refuse to appear until the media crescendo reached a peak... then suddenly the wall comes down. Kean gets a victory with her testimony and the rest of the commission rolls over and gets a nice scratch on the tummy...
Meanwhile over here at 911 truth central - aka DU - we too are all so excited with our apparent victory that we miss the fact we have just had our lollies whisked out from under our noses.
Please... tell me I am wrong....
Al