Morning Sedition questions

There was a lot to talk about on today's show - did anyone else hear?

1. They talked to Larisa on the phone. That was very cool - we can say we knew her when.

2. Scott Ritter. Yoiks. He was casting a VERY wide net of aspersions, which included naming Clinton, Gore, and Sandy Berger as active enablers of the WMD myth. Anyone got an opinion on exactly how loose a cannon he is? Mark and Marc were pretty shocked by what he was saying. As was I.

3. Cindy Sheehan was in the studio. This is a touchy subject. I have nothing but sympathy for Cindy, for what she has gone through and what she is trying to do. I'm just not at all sure I'm on board with her politics. She talked a lot about Hillary ("She might as well be a republican"), but also added she was being hard on her because she thinks Hillary "could be such a great leader." She mentioned JK briefly, and only in passing.She wants all the dems who want to run in 2008 to be standing up and saying , "OUT NOW." I have a problem mostly with her lack of nuance. I think she's oversimplifying.

I have to come back to this later on tonight (at work now and can't give it full attention.)

Did you read Imperial Hubris, or Ghost Wars or Richard Clark's book Against All Enemies? Sad and fascinating. (Go to amazon and you can read excerpts.)

Scott Ritter should know what he's talking about (though he's gone way lefty lately and would conflict with Imperial Hubris's author Michael Scheuer, who reminds me of Kerry's dad.)

More later.

about Cindy, she is over simplfying.
We need to get the troops out gradually.
We can't just leave. BUT we need to be setting up
an exit strategy. I want our troops out now, but * made such a mess.
It's that "pottery barn rule". We broke it, we need to do some fixing.

accusations. One tangential thing that supports non-specific (but obviously high ranking) Democrats being involved is the article posted here in the past (I'm not at my usual computer) where Kerry explained his IWR vote - saying that DEMOCRATS and Republicans he trusted told him WMD were possible. (I had suspected Clinton, because he publicly supported the war and because having been President 2 years before he would have been one of the few people with more information than Kerry himself).

I would be disappointed if Gore had anything to do with it. He spoke so strongly against the war - but I think that was after the inspectors were in, possibly after the war started. It makes no sense if he spoke out before the IWR vote.

I have the same problem with Sheehan as you do. While I respect the fact that she has channeled her grief to speaking out, I wish hope she will judge people on the merits of what they are really trying to do. No serious contender is calling for immediate withdrawal. She did say nice things about Kerry after she met with him, but then seemed influenced by others into saying she won't support someone who supported the war AGAIN - ugggghhhh! - though she still seems to make a distinction between Hillary and Kerry.

If Ritter can get backup for his claim that Clinton, Gore and Berger were spreading the WMD myth - the question is did they really know it was not true - if yes, the hard truth is that they are as guilty as Bush. (Could this be behind the Democrats that won't sign Kerry's DSM letter? It really sounds like Kerry was lied to and the lies pushed him to a yes vote on an issue that he was on the fence about.)

http://shows.airamericaradio.com/ms/node

Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector who was doubtful of Iraq's WMDs in the run-up to the Iraq war, joins us in studio to discuss his new book Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein.