Was it "Wag the Dog"
and the GOP Response?
By Denis Mueller

The recent appearance of Bill Clinton on Fox News has
sparked great controversy. President Clinton, in response
to questions from Chris Wallace of Fox, has been all over
the news since it first appeared this past weekend but
what are the facts? Was it true that the GOP questioned
his motives?

On August 10, 1998, Clinton started a bombing campaign on
alleged terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan. While
there was strong bipartisan support for the attacks from
most of the GOP there were exceptions. As several
Congressional Republicans accused Clinton of launching the
attacks to divert attention away from the controversy.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) – who was the author of the
ridiculous single bullet theory, which stated that a magic
bullet that seemed to change directions in mid-air was the
bullet that hit President Kennedy and Gov. Connelly, said
that "there's an obvious issue that will be raised
internationally as to whether there is any diversionary
motivation;" then-Sen. John D. Ashcroft (R-MO) declared
that "there is a cloud over this presidency;" followed by
Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) who asserted:

"The president has been consumed with matters regarding
his personal life. It raises questions about whether or
not he had the time to devote to this issue, or give the
kind of judgment that needed to be given to this issue to
call for military action."

Additionally, on December 16, 1998, Clinton authorized a
military strike against Iraq, which he said targeted
"Iraq's nuclear, As a December 17, 1998, Los Angeles Times
article reported quoted Sen. Trent Lott who said:

"While I have been assured by administration officials that
there is no connection with the impeachment process in the
House of Representatives, I cannot support this military
action in the Persian Gulf at this time," Lott said. "Both
the timing and the policy are subject to question."

Other GOP leaders had this to say:

"Never underestimate a desperate president," said House
Rules chairman Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.). "This time he means
business. What option is left for getting impeachment off
the front page and maybe even postponed?"

The Clinton bombing was a failure- and we should remember
this- but the GOP response was just as bad. So what are we
to make of all of this? First, we should remember the
factory bombed turned out to be an aspirin factory and the
second was that the GOP dragged the entire country through
the whole Monica Lewinsky affair. It seems to me that the
GOP wants it both ways. I already have written an article
saying that there have been plenty of films that have
presented an altered view of history, which may of
surprised many of you, and that we should judge the film
on its merits. In this case it was a pretty bad film but
Clinton did tell the truth and the GOP did question his
motives and this is a fact.

We don't need to re-argue Clinton's motives.

Republicans today are saying that Clinton should have pursued Osama more agressively. None of them said that at the time. So the republican attacks are completely baseless even if you do believe the "wag the dog" theory.

That is an interesting article, but I would say, given the political climate and the Lewinsky affair that some of that criticism perhaps was more than just typical politically motivated smearing.

However, like anything else, what matters is what happened when the threat from Al Quaeda became very well known and very deadly. Like Clinton states (and is able to refer the matter back to Richard Clarke for verification, as he had over 20 years WH experience under 4 Presidents) is that these folks themselves had 8 months before 9/11, and if the threat, which NOW is perceived as so grave during Clinton's 2nd term, then the Bush Admin, from their time in office, are more to blame than Clinton ever was, as they completely ignored any threat from Bin Laden. In fact they had a member of the Taliban in the WH on Feb. of 2001 state visit.

recall from the M Moore movie that the Taliban had also visited the Bush ranch in Texas prior to 2000.
These are the sorts of realities that naturally lead to conspiracy theory.