Liar:

Scott McClellan said about Richard Clarke: (March 22, 2004)

Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he's raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let's look at the politics of it. His best buddy is Rand Beers, who is the principal foreign policy advisor to Senator Kerry's campaign. The Kerry campaign went out and immediately put these comments up on their website that Mr. Clarke made.

Fact: Clarke left the Bush administration in March 2003. One year ago. McClellan, most likely keying off of Clarke's resignation letter of 20 January 2003, is using that date to get to 14 months, which he then rounds up to one-and-a-half years.

A minor point, to be sure, but another example of how these guys are using every advantage they think they can muster in order to defend themselves.

If he thought he could get away with it, he'd round up to a decade.

posted by Quiddity at 3/24/2004 09:33:00 AM