Posted 10:47 AM by Robert

Little Vacation Lies

John Kerry almost certainly implicitly lied when he said last Sunday that he has asked to be sent copies of Richard Clarke's book that accuses the Bush administration of manipulating America into war with Iraq with dangerous consequences, among other nasty election-year things. It was almost certainly a lie because Senator Kerry has almost certainly had access to that book for a very long time - and the media should be asking the Senator, his advisors, Mr. Clarke and the book's publisher about that.

The matter is significant because Mr. Clarke's making his book available to Senator Kerry or his advisors in advance would be further evidence of Mr. Clarke's bias, unreliability as a witness and election-year motivations, which are all fairly apparent anyway.

Clarke is a close friend of former counterterrorism official Rand Beers, a key adviser to Sen. John F. Kerry, and now teaches a course with Beers at Harvard.

So we are implicitly asked by Senator Kerry to believe that Mr. Clarke gave no advance copies of his book to his good friend and current co-teacher Mr. Beers, or that Mr. Beers did not pass on a copy of the book to the Senator.

Could any sophisticated person believe that without asking the obvious people, including the Senator, his advisors, Mr. Clarke and the book's publisher? I don't think so.