Unity?. 10-8-01  I was wondering as I saw the WTC burning on September 11 how long it would take the forces of vicious right wing hatred to blame Bill Clinton for the attacks. The answer was roughly 24 hours as William Safire columnist from the NY Times did just that. The Washington Post reported "The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had been over for a few hours when Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) announced his conclusion about the root of the problem. 'We had Bill Clinton backing off, letting the Taliban go, over and over again,' " Rush Limbaugh has predictably accused Clinton of softness on terrorism. We've wondered how long this national unity would last. It is clear that it is the hate mongers on the right would provide the fissure.

To watch this fault line look closely within the Bush Administration. As America's response was being formulated, the administration split into the Colin Powell camp that encourages coalition building and the Wolfowicz wing (Deputy Defense Secretary) who wanted to use this opportunity to wage a broad war to include going into Iraq and removing Saddam. Collateral damage? We spit on your collateral damage. The Wolfowicz wing could care less about coalitions. Others outside the Administration that are a part of this wing include Richard Perle and that paragon of virtue, William Bennett.

Thankfully the President has not listened to these Rambo freaks to this point. Powell's views are thus far holding sway. If things go bad that could change. But even very liberal Democrats are supporting this President. Bush seems to have his response appropriately calibrated. Oh, there may be some opposition from the hard left (both of them) but it is the right who doesn't seem to know how to act without Bill Clinton to hate. These are the forces of American divisiveness. According to Limbaugh "Mr. Clinton can be held culpable for not doing enough when he was commander in chief to combat the terrorists who wound up attacking the World Trade Center and Pentagon."

The Bush administration was in for nine months prior to September 11. Were they marshaling public opinion for a war on terrorism? No. They had been trying to convince us to buy a missile defense shield that won't work against enemies we don't have.

Before September 11 there was no public support for losing American lives to suppress terrorism. Bill Clinton couldn't change that. George W Bush couldn't change that. The sad fact is it took a disaster and massive loss of life.

I hope President Bush continues this campaign in a way that tears the heart out of terrorism but that does not allow the coalition to fade, in a way that respects Islam, and a way that stabilizes the world economy. I further hope he doesn't use the disaster to push a divisive economic agenda. (see fuzzy math)

There will be political fights ahead, but some of them might just be within the Republican party as Bush attempts to pacify the hard right and the moderates and Democrats. My hope is he isolates that right wing hate mongers in favor the broad middle. Wishful thinking?