NYPress - The Gist - Michelangelo Signorile - Vol. 15, Iss. 33

NYPress - The Gist - Michelangelo Signorile - Vol. 15, Iss. 33 you can rest assured that if this were the Clinton administration in office rather than the W administration, the blaring attack headlines would be nonstop and tv news would be on the administration’s butt like there was no tomorrow. If Clinton and Gore were in the White House right now and were involved in the same corporate scandals, two independent investigations–one for Harken, one for Halliburton–would be under way. There would be congressional hearings about why we’ve failed to meet the primary mission in Afghanistan, why we didn’t get the leader of Al Qaeda and the leader of the Taliban, which would shift the entire debate on the effectiveness of the "war on terror." And there would be another investigation into why the administration was asleep at the switch from the get-go, as Time magazine’s cover story last week showed, stalling the previous administration’s antiterrorism activities.

All this talk of an invasion of Iraq, meanwhile, would be laughed off as yet another ploy to change the subject from the president’s own personal problems. And if the vice president went underground just as he was being investigated for corporate misconduct he’d be flushed out pronto by reporters. When our leaders are making "rare public appearances," you better believe it’s time for relentless questions.