A tried-and-true way to attack a person’s credibility is to spread rumors about their sexuality.
The web blog mathewgross.com/blog/ reports that the Bush administration’s next attempt to discount Richard Clarke’s credibility will consist of alleging that he’s a big gay. Thus writes the Boston Globe: ‘Clarke, who is unmarried and lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., has long received plaudits as a diligent, highly effective bureaucrat with equal regard on both sides of the aisle … .’
‘A fatherless, unmarried bureaucrat who quotes Dante?,’ Matthew writes. ‘Clearly we know which team he’s batting for. But I suspect that any attempts to push the issue by the Bush administration will backfire. They’ve shown the American people in the past ten days how vicious they can be; they won’t improve their case by grasping at the irrelevant, especially if it’s done in a transparent manner.’
Clarke has made major headlines around the world for saying the Bush administration, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, ordered Clarke, his then top anti-terrorism adviser, to look for a link between Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there probably was not such a link. Clarke told CBS News that White House officials were tepid in their response when he urged them months before Sept. 11 to meet to discuss what he saw as a severe threat from al Qaeda. ‘I find it outrageous that the President is running for re-election on the grounds that he’s done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it,’ Clarke said.