White House Denies They're In Denial (Monday's Second Hour)

We kick off the hour with the explosive revelations from Bob Woodward's new book that the Bush Administration has mislead the public about the violence in Iraq and ignored 9-11 warnings. A couple of points: anyone paying attention doesn't need Woodward to tell them this and...Woodward is a a hack. Don't get me wrong, I've jumping with joy about the trouble this book is causing, but it doesn't make me like the guy just because he wrote a critical book. The lips of his first two books were planted squarely on Bush's bum and I'm also annoyed about his role in the Plame affair that he didn't bother to tell anyone about until way late. The rumor is that Woodward puts the topic of his book out there and then who ever gives him the best leaks gets their story told. This sounds plausable to me. It's obvious the spunky watergate reporter is dead and gone. Woodward is all about what's good for Woodward. Oh, and I especially hate it when journalists hold onto information to put in their books when they should be publishing it as soon as possible in their papers. Okay, enough Woodward bashing.

Tom Foreman than gives us a piece that delves into Woodward's claim that Tenet got brushed off by Rice in July 2001 regarding the threat posed by Bin Laden. Apparently Bush didn't want to swat at flies. WTF? Anyway, the White House has issued a release of five myths about the book. Tom then goes on to list what Woodward says in his book and then the White House's response. What's missing here is that thing they call reporting. See, NBC Nightly News actually did a very similar piece, but instead of just telling us that Rice denies Tenet talked to her in July about the threat, they actually had documentation to prove Rice wrong. I normally love ya Tom, but this was a pretty crap job. Following the piece we get clips of Woodward on Larry King Live.

Up next we've got "Jawbreaker" author Gary Berntsen live in studio and he talks a bit about that July 2001 warning. Gary says that he personally believed the warning and that an attack was coming, but some in the CIA didn't. John asks if the administration has been straight with us, but Gary basically gives a nonanswer. Of note is that he thinks the situation on the ground is worse than what's being reported.

Moving on now to a taped interview with formed White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who Woodward's book claims tried to get rid of Rumsfeld. Card confirms he talked about getting rid of Rumsfeld, but says it was normal discussions about changing the whole cabinet. He also confirms Laura Bush talked to him about Rumsfeld being harmful to her husband, but she never lobbyied for him to be fired. Card does not believe any change in the cabinet should be made now. However, when asked about after the election he is a bit more wishy washy. Yeah, may as well wait. You wouldn't want to put the election in jeopardy. It's not like people are dying every single day or anything. These people are disgusting. During the interview Card mentioned the term "Washington Read" and as we go out, John explains that that means looking yourself up in the book index and only reading those pages. John thinks he is so cool that he knows that. He then throws to Anderson, all the while chattering at him about Woodward's book. Anderson so does not care. John, Anderson is surrounded by starvation and misery right now, I really don't think he's concerned about Amazon rankings. Anyway, John asks Anderson if there is anything that has shocked him since the last time he was there and Anderson mentions how the country has no infrastructure.

Next up we have a Jamie McIntyre piece on the Rumsfeld aspect of the Woodward book. We've seen this play before. People want Rumsfeld gone. Bush stubbornly sticks by him. When asked for comment Rumsfeld gives bizarre quote. It's like we're stuck in some sort of loop. Meanwhile our troops keep dying.

A quick update let's us know that the big Day Fire is now contained. Yay. Oh, and there's breaking news that the Washington Times is officially asking for Hastert to step down. !!!! Oh it's hitting the fan now. Hey Rove, how are you liking this surprise?

After a Candy Crowley repeat we move on to a John Zarella piece on Foley's congressional seat. Obviously he has to give it up, but his name is going to have to remain on the ballot. That's probably going to make things difficult for Joe Negron, the republican now running in Foley's place. What's funny is that the democrat, Tim Mahoney, didn't really have a chance before all this, but he sure does now. Following John's piece we have a repeat of the Randi Kaye piece and interview with Dr. Drew.

Anderson then pops in again to rehash the stuff he's said before. The problem is that Anderson is sporadically sprinkling the word "tonight" into the info, making it seem like they're going to cover the stuff he's talking about later in the broadcast. Unfortunately, the show's almost over and I'm pretty sure Anderson is talking in terms of his "tonight" since it's day there now. Anyway, confusion all around. Anderson is confused or jetlagged and now some viewers are probably confused too. But, whatever, not a big deal. I'm sure people figured it out. I can't wait for "tonight", whenever that might be.

After a commercial Anderson intros us into a Jeff Koinange piece on Darfur and apparently things are much worse than when Jeff was there two years ago. We meet a woman who is building a wall of mud to try to protect herself. She has been raped and aid workers say half the women in the camp will be raped. That's astounding. Jeff says the Sudan government backs the janjaweed in order to control the nation's oil money and this camp will not get another food delivery for several weeks. The world is paying more attention to the disaster, but there has been no impact. On that depressing note...we're out.