We’ll return to our regularly scheduled sexual cyberstalking programming in a few moments, but may I just take a moment to ask just what in the hell is going on with this?
A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
The account by the spokesman, Sean McCormack, came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” to suggest she had ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. McCormack also said records showed that the Sept. 11 commission had been informed about the meeting, a fact that former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday.
When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Mr. Woodward’s reporting.
Now, after several days, both current and former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward’s account.
Officials now agree that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism deputy, J. Cofer Black, were so alarmed about intelligence pointing to an impending attack by Al Qaeda that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House with Ms. Rice and her National Security Council staff.
According to two former intelligence officials, Mr. Tenet told those assembled at the White House about the growing body of intelligence the C.I.A. had collected suggesting an attack was in the works. But both current and former officials, including allies of Mr. Tenet, took issue with Mr. Woodward’s account that he and his aides had left the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had ignored them.
Earlier this week, some members of the Sept. 11 commission said they could not recall being told about a meeting like the one described by Mr. Woodward.
On Monday, officials said Mr. Tenet had told members of the commission about the July 10 meeting when they interviewed him in early 2004, but committee members said he never indicated he had left the White House with the impression that he had been ignored.
“Tenet never told us that he was brushed off,” said Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic member of the commission. “We certainly would have followed that up.”
Mr. McCormack said the records showed that far from ignoring Mr. Tenet’s warnings, Ms. Rice acted on the intelligence and requested that Mr. Tenet make the same presentation to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft, then the attorney general.
But Mr. Ashcroft said by telephone on Monday evening that he never received a briefing that summer from Mr. Tenet.
“Frankly, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get that kind of briefing,” he said. “I’m surprised he didn’t think it was important enough to come by and tell me.”
Government investigations have shown that Mr. Ashcroft was briefed by other C.I.A. officials in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.
WTF? Why did the White House and Rice say last week that the meeting never took place? What’s up with the 9/11 Commission? Did they cover up for Condi or did they fail to note meetings that Condi took seriously? (I doubt that last since the commission’s main author is Condi’s good buddy, Phil Zelikow.)
This is important because, as we know, the Republicans are working overtime to write the history to say the Clinton administration let the situation develop and fester without any real action while the Bush administration did everything it could within the short time it was in office. That is demonstrably false.
I honestly don’t care if Tenet and Black “felt” they were brushed off or not. It’s clear that the intelligence communities were warning the administration in dire terms all summer long that a terrorist attack was looming and yet Junior went off to Crawford and cleared brush for the entire month of August.
The overarching reason for all this was that when the Bush admnistration took office they were determined to do everything differently than Clinton, Bush Sr even Reagan. The egomaniacs in charge (and the empty brand name in a suit out front) operated on a childish level that said nothing their predecesors did was correct, none of their priorities were right and they were determined to prove it.
It is documented that these people did not take terrorism seriously before they took office, nor did they take terrorism seriously after they took office. You canlook it up. They are temperamentally incapable of changing their minds in the face of new evidence short of a massive terrorist attack on New York and Washington DC … and even then they saw terrorism mainly as a political opportunity to advance their previous agenda of deposing Saddam Hussein.
These facts are indisputable. The problem is that these details of whether Condi knew on July 10th and whether Tenet felt he was being listened to are the details with which they hope to bury those facts.
Julia has more on this and points out that Ashcroft slashed funding for terrorism after he had these briefings. Maha notes that nobody has yet adequately explained why Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airplanes during the period except to say he was worried for his personal safety.
Don’t blame Clinton. This is all Al Gore’s fault. Had he not invented the Internets, there would have been no Mark Foley scandal.
***
Poor Chris Hitchens. There isn’t enough bourbon in the world to erase the horror and humiliation he must be enduring now that he knows that Henry Kissinger – Henry Kissinger – was a major Bush adviser for the Iraq fiasco. Oh, the humanity!
***
What a relief. At first, I thought Mark Foley might be a pedophile preying on young boys. Fortunately, I’ve learned that he’s an admitted substance abuser who might be a pedophile preying on young boys. Whew! That makes it more tolerable.
Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and deepen understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars.
Mather, 60, works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Smoot, 61, works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.
The scientists discovered the nature of ”blackbody radiation,” cosmic background radiation believed to stem from the ”big bang,” when the universe was born.
”They have not proven the big-bang theory but they give it very strong support,” said Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel committee for physics.
”It is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest. It increases our knowledge of our place in the universe.”
Their work was based on measurements done with the help of NASA’s COBE satellite launched in 1989. They were able to observe the universe in its early stages about 380,000 years after it was born. Ripples in the light they detected also helped demonstrate how galaxies came together over time.
”The COBE results provided increased support for the big-bang scenario for the origin of the Universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said in its citation.
The big-bang theory states that the universe was born billions of years ago from a rapidly expanding dense and incredibly hot state.
Disgraceful. And do we hear from the other side, that the Bible tells us unequivocally the universe is 6,000 years old? We do not. Not so much as one iota of balance.
***
Finally, while the multiple farces Republicans have made of governance play themselves out in all their tawdry stupidity, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in recent attacks around Baghdad bringing the total US military casualties in Iraq close to 2800. Remind me again: what are they there for?
I simply can’t forget, no matter how gleeful the schadenfreude watching rightwingers squirm through a scandal involving the cover-up of drunken homosexual pedophilia, that these incompetent, sick clowns are getting people killed. Lots of people killed.
Since I’m sure you’re feeling rather set upon right now by that nasty Bobby Woodward, I just wanted to let you know that I’m on your side and totally agree with you. It is absolutely incomprehensible that you ignored repeated warnings about imminent terrorist threats in the summer of 2001.
Tony Perkins of Dobson’s Family Research Counsel was on CNN earlier and I think we are hearing the contours of the Christian Right’s argument. They are going with Newt Gingrich’s formulation: Poor Denny was afraid of being called a gay basher so he didn’t say anything.
Since when has the GOP been afraid to be called homophobic or gay bashers? They positively revel in it. In fact, just a couple of months ago 202 Republican House members voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. (It failed to get the required 2/3rds for passage.) Somehow, I don’t think the Republicans are quaking in their boots at being called anti-gay.
And if they were so afraid of being called anti-gay that they allowed a 52 year old congressman to stalk 16 year old boys on the internet, then they are much too timorous to be running the government. These guys are charged with making laws and running wars, for gawd’s sake.
Tony didn’t seem bothered by this. It appears that Focus on the Family has decided that they aren’t going to condemn the leadership for failing to protect these teen age kids. But then should we be surprised? Dobson is a child psychologist who wrote this bit of “professional” advice for his followers who wonder if their sons might be gay:
Meanwhile, the boy’s father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son’s maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.
Dr Dobson undoubtedly believes that Representative Foley was just behaving as any normal older man would in loco parentis.
Update: Gary Bauer sent around an email:
This latest scandal in Washington is just further evidence that the pro- family agenda is desperately needed for the country. We are the ones who have argued that human sexuality should be channeled through marriage. We are the ones who have argued that marriage is between one man and one woman. We are the ones who have argued that schools should teach kids how to read and write and stop handing out condoms and birth control pills. We are the ones who say that all our children should be welcomed into the world under law. We are the ones who say there are reliable standards of right and wrong. And we are the ones who have led the charge against the sexualization of our children.
“And we are the ones whocover for and enable 52 year old pervs to banter with 16 year old boys on the internet:
Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekend
Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:38 PM): lol no
Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:40 PM): im single right now
Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:57 PM): my last gf and i broke up a few weeks agi
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny
Xxxxxxxxx (7:47:29 PM): lol…a bit
Maf54 (7:48:00 PM): did you spank it this weekend yourself
Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:04 PM): no
Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:16 PM): been too tired and too busy
LIMBAUGH: I’m just thinking out loud here. What if somebody got to the page and said, you know, we want you to set Foley up. We need to do a little titillating thing here. Keep it and save it and so forth. How would you get a kid to do that? Yeah, who knows? You threaten him or pay him. There’s any number of ways given the kind of people that we’re dealing with and talking about here.
Now, folks, I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I’m not trying to mount any kind of a defense. That’s a bad word. I’m not trying to get into a defense of what Mark Foley did. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m just telling you that the — the — the orgy and the orgasm that has been taking place in the media since Friday and with the Democrats is — it’s all coordinated, and it’s all — it’s all oriented toward the election. There’s no concern about the kid — no concern about the children.
There is — there is — there’s not even any real problem with what Foley did, as we’ve discussed. In their hearts and minds and their crotches, they don’t have any problem with what Foley did. They’ve defended it over the — over the years.
Everybody’s on to Hastert’s transparent ploy to shift attention from his own culpability in refusing to keep the disturbed congressmen away from the high school kids. It’s ballsy. But there is a more subtle intention. It’s also clear that he’s desperate to get a formal investigation going either in DC or Florida that will allow them to claim that law enforcement has asked that they not comment any further. The administration discovered with the Plame case that they can stonewall for months with that.
This could be quite different, however. The players in this case aren’t all DC insiders but rather kids from all over the country and their respective parents, friends and relatives who may be willing to talk to the press. And this is so juicy, the press is actually out looking for them. I don’t think it’s containable even if the entire FBI is investigating.
Still, I suspect we have a very few days, if that, before the entire GOP congress clams up because of the “pending investigation.” Hopefully the press will dog them constantly.
But there’s no reason their surrogates in the media, and they are legion, shouldn’t be asked to constantly speculate about the nature of the acts and the cover-up and be forced to explain to the public just why it is that the entire Republican government is collapsing under the accumulated weight of scandal, incompetence and lies. That’s why they get the big bucks. Now they are going to earn it.
Update: Fineman is not getting it on Hardball. He thinks that Hastert, by asking the FBI and the Florida authorities to look into these IMs, is going to provoke the kids who had them to come forward. That is not what Hastert’s doing at all. He’s trying to get the FBI to track the kids down and tell them NOT to come forward or comment “while the investigation is ongoing.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Alberto Gonzales himself advised him to do it. As I said, I don’t think it’s containable, but they are going to try to do what they can.
Update II: Speaking of surrogates in the media, this is simply unbelievable. John Amato pulled some clips from Drudge’s radio show this week-end and Jane transcribed them:
Clip #1: And if anything, these kids are less innocent – these 16 and 17 year-old beasts …and I’ve seen what they’re doing on YouTube and I’ve seen what they’re doing all over the internet – oh yeah – you just have to tune into any part of their pop culture. You’re not going to tell me these are innocent babies. Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the Congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him. We haven’t got the whole story on this.
[…]
Clip #2: You could say “well Drudge, it’s abuse of power, a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17 year-old beasts, talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the internet.” Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth. Oh yeah. Oh, I haven’t…they were talking about how many times they’d masturbated, how many times they’d done it with their girlfriends this weekend … all these things and these “innocent children.” And this “poor” congressman sitting there typing, “oh am I going to get any,” you know?
Yeah, maybe they were all just “blowing off steam.” These sexually deviant Republican radio mouthpieces like Drudge and Rush (who are feted like rock stars by the entire GOP establishment) give me the creepy feeling we have entered the last days of the Roman Empire.
Torture and sexual abuse of prisoners are just frat boy pranks, a congressman sexually stalking 16 year olds in the nations capital is actually a victim of young “beasts” who won’t leave the poor man alone. I’m beginning to realize why they were so freaked out by Bill Clinton having an extra-marital affair — it was so mainstream and predictable compared to their personal habits that they thought it was kinky.
I just love it when CNN posts an utterly unanswerable survey question:
If I say yes, it will make me less likely to vote Republican, then I’d be lying, because my intention of voting for Republicans was zero to begin with. But if I answer no, it won’t make me less likely to vote Republican, then that might be construed to mean I might be voting for Republicans, or that the Foley meltdown doesn’t matter to me, which is both wrong and totally misleading.
[NOTE to readers of Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions: I haven’t forgotten or not read the first two chapters. I’ve been overwhelmed with meat-world responsibilities. Tomorrow, I’ll post on Chaps 1 and 2.]
So Tony Snow referred to the Foley matter as “some naughty emails” this morning and got slapped by the press corps. His response warmed me to the depth of my soul. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time:
“You’re right. That may sound a little bit too glib – I think I’ve used the words… horrifying, appalling, disturbing. “Fill in the blanks,” he added. “It’s absolutely inappropriate.”
Well I’m sorry, but that just won’t do. Republicans had better get out their Thesauruses because we are now deep into sex scandal disclaimer territory. They are going to have to arm themselves with all the words and they are going to have to use them lest their political opponents be allowed to paint them as soft on covering up underage cyber-stalking by middle aged congressmen. These are the rules they made up — they’d better get with with the program.
Here are a few to start with: deplorable, reprehensible, unforgiveable, intolerable, contemptible… you get the drift. There’s plenty more where that came from, but the rules dictate that they use all of those words to describe Foley and the irresponsible House leadership every single time they speak of the matter — and before they even utter a peep of defense.
They can look over any given transcript of the Chris Matthews show during the Lewinsky scandal and see how the Democrats who were forced to do this handled the situation. They were required to make this disclaimer, in ever more florid terms as the scandal unfolded, each time they appeared on television. That’s how it works. No “fill in the blanks” allowed.
They will also find in those transcripts the approved Republican talking points of the period which repeatedly claimed how repulsive and nauseating it was for a middle aged man to become involved with a 22 year old who worked in his office. That might give them some clues about what’s about to happen to them. This time, of course, you have the specter of multiple 16 year old victims, the perpetrator being a closeted, gay Catholic Republican and the House leadership pretty much giving the guy a thumbs up and an “attaboy” — so there’s a lot more for their opponents to work with.
In fact, if you feel like getting involved in this yourself, you can follow Josh Marshall’s advice and give your Republican congressperson a call today and see whether he or she has lost confidence in Denny Hastert and the GOP leadership. (Here’s a web site with all the phone numbers.) You might want to also ask if he or she finds their behavior in this matter deplorable, contemptible, unforgiveable and reprehensible.
I certainly do. In fact, words can’t express just how abominable and despicable I think they are.
“If I catch anyone who leaks in my government,” Bush tells Chrétien in March, 2002, “I would like to string them up by the thumbs — the same way we do with prisoners in Guantanamo.”
In my last post, commenter Mitch pointed to something I hadn’t noticed about Hillary Clinton, that she had given a dynamic speech on the senate floor invoking George Washington in the days following Britain’s 1776 invasion of New York City. Washington had issued orders to his army that in dealing with captives they were not to follow the British example of prisoner abuse:
“Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren.”
Hillary then concluded:
Therefore, George Washington, our commander-in-chief before he was our President, laid down the indelible marker of our nation’s values even as we were struggling as a nation and his courageous act reminds us that America was born out of faith in certain basic principles. In fact, it is these principles that made and still make our country exceptional and allow us to serve as an example. We are not bound together as a nation by bloodlines. We are not bound by ancient history; our nation is a new nation. Above all, we are bound by our values…
OK – some credit is due to Hillary, but with regard to the so called American values, I recall a distinction issued by Riggsveda back in ’04:
A Suggestion For Re-Framing Enough with “values”! The word is meaningless. The right has so worn out this word that it has become almost synonymous with hypocrisy, and we, the left, should not be scrambling to latch onto it in some misguided effort to convince the world that we have them, too. Live your morals, don’t waste your breath preaching about them. The real word we should be using, and using at every opportunity, is “honor”. It goes beyond just implying that one has ethics. It means one lives by them.
Honor.
I wrote the following (slightly modified) post in response to Riggsveda’s suggestion. Digby linked to it at the time.
Death Over Dishonor There actually was a culture of honor back in 1776, as can be evidenced by an extraordinary case surrounding the actions of George Washington. September of that year was a time of extreme anxiety for him, a time when he contemplated his own death as a means of avoiding dishonor. You won’t read about this in the biographies or history books, contemporary or otherwise. But if you read his letters, you will see it’s true, that when he foresaw the American cause collapsing, his legacy flashed before his eyes and he contemplated dying, and maybe even attempted to bring it on.
Anticipating a British landing in New York, Washington’s army had built fortifications in strategic places around the city. The aristocrats in the British parliament had won the day and His Majesty’s army was about to launch an 18th century version of shock and awe. On the fourteenth of September, Washington rode his stallion to inspect the various defensive works around the island. Joshua Babcock, a soldier from Rhode Island captured this real image in his journal:
Just after dinner, three frigates and a forty gun ship sailed up the East River under a gentle breeze and kept up an incessant fire, as if they meant to attack the city. Three men, idle spectators, had the misfortune of being killed by one cannonball. One shot struck within six foot of General Washington as he was on horseback riding into the fort.
The next morning hell on earth erupted from five British warships that had anchored in the East River, just off Manhattan at Kip’s Bay, three miles north of the city. A British soldier on one of the ships, The Orpheus, told the story:
It is hardly possible to conceive what a tremendous fire was kept up by those five ships. In the Orpheus alone we fired away five thousand, three hundred and seventy-six pounds of powder in only fifty-nine minutes.
An American officer, Colonel Douglas, wrote about it to his wife: “They very suddenly began as heavy a cannonade than ever came from as many ships, as they had nothing but to fire on us at their pleasure.”
So loud was the pounding that Washington heard it seven miles away at headquarters on Harlem Heights. He later described the scene in a letter to Congress. Washington wrote:
In the morning they began their operations. Three ships of war came up the North River as high as Bloomingdale, and about eleven o’clock those in the East River began a most severe and heavy cannonade to scour the grounds and cover the landing of their troops between Turtle Bay and the City, where breast works had been thrown up to oppose them. As soon as I heard the firing, I rode with all possible dispatch toward the place of landing.
Stop and think about this. Washington hears the sound of New York under attack, so he mounts his horse to ride to the scene. In 2001, on the other hand, George W. Bush hears word that New York is under attack and he reads My Pet Goat for seven minutes, and then, after gathering his thoughts, jumps on Air Force One to fly at warp speed in the opposite direction, as far away from New York as he can get. His first impulse was to run.
The Demons Of Fear And Disorder In the East River, the British ships had formed a cover for the landing troops, and eyewitness accounts mentioned the heavy smoke hanging over the water. While the firing continued from the ships, eighty-four transport boats carried five thousand British troops to shore where the enemy soldiers walked onto Manhattan unopposed. The American militia, whose only mission was to hinder the British progress coming onto the island, instead abandoned their positions and took to flight. British General William Howe who was in charge of the operation described his success in a report to London:
The fire of the shipping being so well directed and so incessant, the enemy could not remain in their works, and the descent was made without the least opposition.
One American wrote that the cannonade “seemed to infuse a panic through the whole of our troops.” Another described an “incessant fire on our lines” and grapeshot “so hot” that the militia were compelled to retreat. Colonel Douglas again in writing to his wife:
Their boats got under cover of the smoke of the shipping and then struck to the left of my lines in order to cut me off from a retreat. My left wing gave way, which was formed of the militia. I lay myself on the right wing waiting for the boats until Captain Prentice came to me and told me if I meant to save myself to leave the lines, for that was the orders on the left, and that they had left the lines. I then told my men to make the best of their way as I found I had but about ten left with me. They soon moved out and I then made the best of my way out. We then had a mile to retreat through as hot a fire as could well be made, but they mostly overshot us. The brigade was then in such a scattered posture that I could not collect them and I found the whole army on a retreat. The regulars came up in the rear and gave me several platoons at a time when I had none of my men with me. I was so beat that they would have had me a prisoner had not I found an officer that was obliged to leave his horse because he could not get him over a fence.
Private Martin recalled that his company “kept the lines until they were almost upon us, when our officers, seeing we could make no resistance, and that we must soon be exposed to the rake of their guns, gave the order to leave the lines.” He then described the fleeing militia: “In retreating we had to cross a level clear spot of ground, forty or fifty rods [about 750 feet], exposed to the whole of the enemy’s fire.” Martin next noticed a group of American soldiers “on the main road leading to Kings Bridge. They were fired upon by a party of British from a cornfield, and all was immediately in confusion again. I believe the enemy’s party was small; but our people were all militia, and the demons of fear and disorder seemed to take possession of all and everything that day. When I came to the spot where the militia was fired upon, the ground was literally covered with arms, knapsacks, staves, coats, hats, and old oil flasks.”
I suspect it was the demons of fear and disorder that caused Bush to run from the attack on the World Trade Center in September of 2001. He was probably thinking, “What if they come after me?”
He Sought Death Rather Than Life In a letter to Congress, Washington described the chaos as he reached Kip’s Bay:
To my great surprise and mortification, I found the troops that had been posted in the lines retreating, flying in every direction and in the greatest confusion, notwithstanding the exertions of their Generals to form them. I used every means in my power to rally and get them into some order but my attempts were fruitless and ineffectual.
Testimony from a later court martial revealed a few more details. A Brigadier General “saw Generals Washington, Putnam, and Mifflin at the top of the hill eastward, and rode up to them.” Washington directed him “to keep his brigade in order and march on into the cross road.” Washington next ordered the men to “take to the walls” directing them to cover. “Immediately from the front to the rear of the brigade, the men ran to the walls in a confused and most disordered manner.” Another soldier testified the Brigadier tried “to form some order, but the men were so dispersed he found it impossible.”
Meanwhile, the British continued landing their troops and Washington determined it best to make an orderly withdrawal from the area. The testimony indicated Washington’s order to withdraw and recounted a second panic:
“[General Washington] gave order to form the brigade as soon as could be done, and march on to Harlem Heights. When they had proceeded about a mile or two, a sudden panic seized the rear of the brigade; they ran into the fields out of the road.”
This second panic is the one Martin referred to above. Washington also reported it to Congress:
On the appearance of a small party of the Enemy, not more than sixty or seventy, their disorder increased and they ran away in the greatest confusion without firing a single shot.
The journals and letters of several soldiers picked up the scene. Smallwood wrote:
Sixty Light Infantry, upon the first fire, put to flight two brigades of the Connecticut troops, wretches who, however strange it may appear, from the Brigadier-General down to the private sentinel, were caned and whipped by the Generals Washington, Putnam, and Mifflin. But even this indignity had no weight. They could not be brought to stand one shot.
George Weedon wrote that Washington “was so exhausted” by his efforts to rally the men “that he struck several officers in their flight and dashed his hat on the ground. It was with difficulty his friends could get him to quit the field, so great was his emotions.”
General Heath said the poor showing of the troops so exasperated Washington that he “threw his hat on the ground, and exclaimed, are these the men with which I am to defend America?”
Historian Andrew Ward, borrowing a quote from the work of Washington Irving described the fleeing soldiers and the remaining solitary figure of Washington:
And they left Washington almost alone within eighty yards of the oncoming enemy. Blinded with rage — or with despair — he sat his horse, taking no heed of his imminent danger. He would have been shot or captured had not an aide-de-camp seized his bridle and “absolutely hurried him away.”
One of Washington’s closest confidantes and a trusted subordinate, General Nathanael Greene, writing to the Governor of his home state of Rhode Island told of the closing scene. Note the words Greene uses which go to Washington’s state of mind.
We made a miserable retreat from New York owing to the disorderly conduct of the Militia, who ran at the appearance of the Enemy’s advance guard. This was General Fellow’s Brigade. They struck a panic into the troops in the rear, and Fellows and Parsons whole Brigade ran away from about fifty men and left his Excellency on the ground within eighty yards of the Enemy, so vexed at the conduct of the troops that he sought death rather than life.
He sought death rather than life. No one will ever know for sure if Washington in that moment was hoping he would be struck down by enemy fire, but he did pull his horse to a dead stop within range of enemy guns. And though he could have merely intended to demonstrate battlefield courage to the fleeing troops, he knew at a minimum he was putting his life gravely at risk. The letters Washington would write in the days following leave little doubt what was on his mind, and leave no doubt that dying with honor was more important to him than living in dishonor. Washington imagined that his reputation would evaporate as quickly as his army had. To his way of thinking, when the dust settled, and the American cause had been lost, no one would understand that he really never had a chance.
Two letters in particular that Washington wrote after the panic at Kip’s Bay, one to his brother John and another to his cousin Lund, are revealing. The letters parallel each other repeating many of the same details, and track almost identically with what he had written to Congress, with this important exception: each letter revealed a hidden aspect of Washington’s state of mind. In the letters, Washington did something he had never done before Congress; he vented his personal emotions revealing intimate details about what he was thinking at the time. To his brother John he wrote:
Immediately on hearing the cannonade I rode with all possible expedition towards the place of the landing, where breast works had been thrown up to secure our men, and found the troops that had been posted there, and those ordered to their support, to my great surprise and mortification, running away in the most shameful and disgraceful manner, notwithstanding the exertions of their Generals to form them. I used every possible effort to rally them, but to no purpose, and on the appearance of a small part of the Enemy, not more than sixty or seventy, they ran off without firing a single gun. Many of our heavy cannon would inevitably have fallen into the Enemy’s hands, but this scandalous conduct occasioned a loss of many tents, baggage, and camp equipage, which would have been easily secured had they made the least opposition. … The dependence which the Congress has placed upon the militia has already greatly injured, and I fear will totally ruin our cause. Being subject to no control, they introduce disorder among the troops you have attempted to discipline, while the change in their living brings on sickness. This makes them impatient to get home, which spreads universally and introduces abominable desertions. Our numbers by sickness and desertion are greatly reduced. We have not more than 12 or 14,000 men fit for duty, while the Enemy, who it is said are very healthy, have near 25,000.
He closes the letter with this emotion:
In short, it is not in the power of words to describe the task I have to do. £50,000 should not induce me again to undergo what I have done.
To his Cousin Lund he wrote:
Your letter of the 18th now lies before me. The amazement which you seem to be in at the unaccountable measures which have been adopted by Congress would be a good deal increased if I had time to unfold the whole system of their management since twelve months. I do not know how to account for the unfortunate steps which have been taken but from that fatal idea of conciliation which prevailed so long. [He means reconciliation with the British.] Fatal, I call it, because from my soul I wish it may prove so, though my fears lead me to think there is too much danger in it. This time last year I pointed out the evil consequences of short enlistments, the expenses of militia, and the little dependence that was placed in them. I assured [Congress] that the longer they delayed raising a standing army, the more difficult and chargeable would they find it to get one, and that at the same time, the militia would answer no valuable purpose. The frequent calling them in would be attended with an expense that they could have no conception of. Whether, as I have said before, the unfortunate hope of reconciliation was the cause, or the fear of a standing army prevailed, I will not undertake to say. But the policy was to engage men for twelve months only, the consequence of which, you have had great bodies of militia in pay that never were in camp; you have had immense quantities of provisions drawn by men that never rendered you one hour’s service (at least usefully), and this in the most profuse and wasteful way. Your stores have been expended, and every kind of military discipline destroyed by them; your numbers fluctuating, uncertain, and forever far short of report, [and] at no one time, I believe, equal to twenty thousand men fit for duty. At present our numbers fit for duty amount to 14,759, besides 3,427 on command, and the enemy [is] within stone’s throw of us. It is true a body of militia are again ordered out, but they come without any conveniences and soon return [home].
Next, I think we see the bottom of Washington’s heart. This is where he reveals what he thinks of honor and character:
In short, such is my situation that if I were to wish the bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should put him in my stead, with my feelings. And yet I do not know what plan of conduct to pursue. I see the impossibility of serving with reputation, or doing any essential service to the cause by continuing in command, and yet I am told that if I quit the command, inevitable ruin will follow. In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an unhappy, divided state since I was born. To lose all comfort and happiness on the one hand, whilst I am fully persuaded that under such a system of management as has been adopted, I cannot have the least chance for reputation, nor those allowances made which the nature of the case requires. And to be told, on the other, that if I leave the service all will be lost, is distressing. At the same time, I am bereft of every peaceful moment.
But I will be done with the subject, with the precaution to you that it is not a fit one to be publicly known or discussed. If I fall, it may not be amiss that these circumstances be known, and a declaration made in credit to the justice of my character. And if the men will stand by me (which I despair of), I am resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life.
A few days will determine the point if the enemy should not change their plan of operations; for they certainly will not — I am sure they ought not — to waste the season that is now fast advancing and must be precious to them. I thought to have given you a more explicit account of my situation, expectation, and feelings, but I have not time. I am worried to death all day with a variety of perplexing circumstances — disturbed at the conduct of the militia, whose behavior and want of discipline has done great injury to the other troops, who never had officers, except in a few instances, worth the bread they eat. My time, in short, is so much engrossed that I have not leisure for corresponding, unless it is on mere matters of public business.
In the letter to his brother, Washington showed that he still maintained a glimmer of hope:
I should hope the enemy would meet with a defeat, if our troops would behave with tolerable bravery. But experience, to my extreme affliction, has convinced me that this is to be wished for rather than expected. However, I trust that there are many who will act like men, and show themselves worthy of the blessings of freedom.
New York was gone now, the rebels having lost it back to the British without any measurable fight, just as they had lost Long Island in late August. A minister who was loyal to the British wrote in his journal after Long Island, and again after Kip’s Bay, the latter entry marking a momentary pause, just as the power changed over.
Friday August 30th. In the morning, unexpectedly and to the surprise of the city, it was found that all had abandoned Long Island, when many had thought to surround the King’s troops and make them prisoners with little trouble. The language was now otherwise; it was a surprising change, the merry tones on drums and fifes had ceased, and they were hardly heard for a couple of days. It seemed a general damp had spread; and the sight of the scattered [soldiers] up and down the streets was indeed moving. Many looked sickly, emaciated, cast down; the wet clothes, tents, and other things, were lying about before the houses and in the streets today; in general everything seemed to be in confusion. Many, as it is reported for certain, went away to their respective homes. The loss in killed and wounded and taken has been great, and more so than it ever will be known. Several were drowned and lost their lives in passing a creek to save themselves. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland people lost the most. … Sunday September 15th. There was a good deal of commotion in the town; the Continental stores were broke open and people carried off the provisions; the boats crossed to Powlus Hook backward and forward yet till toward evening; some people going away and others coming in; but then the ferry boats, withdrew, and the passage was stopped. Some of the king’s officers from the ships came on shore, and were joyfully received by some of the inhabitants. The King’s flag was put up again in the fort, and the Rebels’ taken down.
Washington quickly composed himself, but events did not let up. Late at night on the twentieth, a mysterious and spectacular fire broke out in New York and burned uncontrollably until midday on the twenty-first. Nearly a quarter of the city was destroyed. No one knows how the fire started, but the British had no reason to burn New York, which was soon to become their winter headquarters. History has cast the fire as accidental, but Washington had asked Congress whether he should destroy the city in order to deprive the British of a place to winter. After discussing the matter, Congress decided New York should be preserved. While Washington undoubtedly played no part in its destruction, the military advantage of burning the city was easily known outside his own circle, which meant there were many who could have been responsible. The eyewitness descriptions of the fire sound eerily familiar to what we saw on television in September of 2001:
Several women and children perished in the fire. Their shrieks, joined to the roaring of the flames, the crush of falling houses, and the widespread ruin, which everywhere appeared, formed a scene of horror great beyond description, which was still heightened by the darkness of the night.
The fire commenced in a small wooden house, on the wharf, near Whitehall slip, which was then occupied by a number of men and women of a bad character. The fire began late at night. There being but a few inhabitants in the city, in a short time it raged tremendously. It burned all the houses on the east side of Whitehall slip, and the west side of Broad Street to Beaver Street. The wind was then southwesterly. About two o’clock in the morning the wind veered to the southeast; this carried the flames of the fire to the northwestward, and burned both sides of Beaver street to the east side of Broadway, then crossed Broadway to Beaver lane, and burning all the houses on both sides of Broadway, with some few houses in New Street to Rector Street, and to John Harrison’s three-story brick house, which stopped the fire on the east side of Broadway; from there it continued burning all the houses in Lumber Street, and those in the rear of the houses on the west side of Broadway to St. Paul’s church, then continued burning the houses on both sides of Partition Street, and all the houses in the rear (again) of the west side of Broadway to the North River. The fire did not stop until it got into Mortkile Street, now Barclay Street. The college yard and the vacant ground in the rear of the same put an end to this awful and tremendous fire.
Trinity church being burned was occasioned by the flakes of fire that fell on the south side of the roof. The steeple, which was one hundred and forty feet high, the upper part wood, and placed on an elevated situation, resembled a vast pyramid of fire, exhibiting a most grand and awful spectacle. The southerly wind fanned those flakes of fire in a short time to an amazing blaze, and it soon became out of human power to extinguish the same; the roof of this noble edifice being so steep that no person could go on it. St. Paul’s church was in the like perilous situation. The roof being flat, with a balustrade on the eaves, a number of citizens went on the same, and extinguished the flakes of fire as they fell on the roof. Thus happily was this beautiful church saved from the destruction of this dreadful fire, which threatened the ruin thereof and that of the whole city. The Lutheran church being contiguous to the houses adjoining the same fire, it was impossible to save it from destruction. This fire was so furious and violently hot, that no person could go near it.
The next day, in another part of the city, a handsome twenty-four year old Yale graduate, blue eyes and flaxen hair, had spoken his last words: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”General Howe, had ordered Nathan Hale to be hanged, accusing him of spying for Washington, a charge Hale would not deny. The British left his corpse twisting in the wind for days, and hung an effigy next to him, a carving of an American soldier stolen from a nearby yard. Across the effigy in bold letters, British soldiers had painted the name “George Washington.”
Actuated By Principles of Honor On the night of the twenty-fourth, Washington retired to the Georgian mansion owned by a loyalist sympathizer who had fled to London at the outbreak of the war. Washington had made the home his headquarters earlier in the month, and would begin the evening by reading several letters requiring his attention. Next he would write several letters, just as he did every night. (What time does time does the modern, incurious, and values-based George W. go to bed? Nine o’clock?) On this night, Washington first wrote the General Orders for his officers, about five hundred words. He then wrote a short letter, maybe two or three hundred words, to John Hancock, the President of Congress. He wrote a second letter to Congress, this one approaching three thousand words. Although he started before midnight, he did not finish this last letter until the early morning hours of the 25th. As I read this and consider Washington’s graceful prose written against a backdrop of defending against a foreign invasion, and as I consider his real dedication to the cause of freedom, and the enormous and constant pressure he was under, I laugh when I think that George Bush probably couldn’t even read the letter, let alone write it. Here is a smattering of what Washington wrote that night. He opened to Hancock with a political touch that should precede a warning as dire the one he was about to give.
Sir: From the hours allotted to sleep, I will borrow a few moments to convey my thoughts on sundry important matters to Congress. I shall offer them with that sincerity which ought to characterize a man of candor; and with the freedom which may be used in giving useful information, without incurring the imputation of presumption.
We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution of our Army. The remembrance of the difficulties which happened upon that occasion last year, and the consequences which might have followed had advantages been taken by the Enemy, added to the present temper and situation of the troops, reflect but a very gloomy prospect upon the appearance of things now, and satisfy me, beyond the possibility of doubt, that unless some speedy and effectual measures are adopted by Congress, our cause will be lost.
It is in vain to expect that any (or more than a trifling) part of this Army will again engage in the service on the encouragement offered by Congress. When men find that their townsmen and companions are receiving 20, 30, and more dollars, for a few months service it cannot be expected without using compulsion, and to force them into the service would answer no valuable purpose. When men are irritated and the passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms. But after the first emotions are over, to expect among such people as compose the bulk of an army, that they are influenced by any other principles than those of self-interest, is to look for what never did, and I fear never will happen. The Congress will deceive themselves, therefore, if they expect it.
A soldier reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause he is engaged in, and the inestimable rights he is contending for, hears you with patience, and acknowledges the truth of your observations, but adds, that it is of no more importance to him than others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this further remark, that his pay will not support him, and he cannot ruin himself and family to serve his country, when every member of the community is equally interested and benefited by his labors. The few therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, are, comparatively speaking, no more than a drop in the ocean. It becomes evidently clear then, that as this contest is not likely to be the work of a day; as the war must be carried on systematically, and to do it, you must have good officers, there are, in my judgment, no other possible means to obtain them but by establishing your Army upon a permanent footing, and giving your officers good pay. This will induce men of character to engage, and till the bulk of your officers are composed of such persons as are actuated by principles of honor, and a spirit of enterprise, you have little to expect from them. Besides, something is due to the man who puts his life in his hand, hazards his health, and forsakes the sweets of domestic enjoyment. … If I was called upon to declare upon oath whether the militia have been most serviceable or hurtful upon the whole, I should subscribe to the latter. I do not mean by this, however, to arraign the conduct of Congress. In doing so, I should equally condemn my own measures, if not my judgment. But experience, which is the best criterion to work by, so fully, clearly, and decisively reprobates the practice of trusting to militia, that no man who regards order, regularity, and economy; or who has any regard for his own honor, character, or peace of mind, will risk them upon this issue. The jealousies of a standing Army, and the evils to be apprehended from one, are remote, and in my judgment, situated and circumstanced as we are, not at all to be dreaded. But the consequence of wanting one, according to my ideas, formed from the present view of things, is certain and inevitable ruin.
Personal Sacrifice It’s well known that Washington loved to dance. He regularly held parties at Mount Vernon, always comfortable with a large group of his friends. They would gather frequently and dance the night away. This passage is from a book called General Washington’s Christmas Farewell:
After more than eight years of war, Washington was impatient to return home. The unpretentious and unfinished country house, its wood panels shaped and covered with a sandy white paint to resemble wood stone, was still without a completed cupola and weather vane. Eight square wooden pillars already fronted the portico overlooking the broad waters of what was then known as the Potowmack. Mount Vernon and the postwar improvements he wanted to make to it had rarely been out of Washington’s thoughts since the shooting had stopped. He had lived on the property, purchased by his father as Little Huntington Creek Plantation in 1735, since he was three years old. At nineteen, in 1751, he had inherited it from his half-brother Lawrence.
Since May 4, 1775, Washington had been back only once, for a few days in October 1781, during the culminating Yorktown campaign. Nearly fifty-two, his once reddish hair was graying above a Roman profile weather beaten by early exposure as a surveyor, planter, and frontier soldier and etched by smallpox at nineteen. He felt physically and emotionally drained. In the limbo between war and peace, his weight, on a solid six-foot-four frame, had burgeoned to 209 pounds. To his worshipers, military and civilian, to whom he symbolized the new United States, Washington embodied rocklike perseverance. He appeared even more majestic and larger than life late in 1783 than in his lean and anxious early years directing what seemed an unwinnable war.
Things only got worse for Washington and his army after they withdrew from New York. As Hillary pointed out, the retreat continued north and then across the Hudson River into New Jersey and eventually Pennsylvania.
Hillary’s speech on the senate floor provided a testimonial to Washington’s honorable action of denouncing prisoner abuse. I applaud her for making it. But a testimonial about values is different than acting with honor. Washington acted with honor, Hillary spoke about values. Republicans talk about values.
I agree with Riggsveda that above all else we need more politicians (and Americans) who act with honor.
What self respecting woman would work in a powerful position for a man who runs his organization like this:
Rumsfeld also infuriated another powerful woman – then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice – by not returning her phone calls. So she complained to the boss.
Bush advised Rice to be “playful” with the stubborn Rumsfeld in an effort to get along. And he cajoled Rumsfeld, telling him: “I know you won’t talk to Condi. But you got to talk to her.”
This is the famous macho cowboy president? Did he tell Colin Powell to be “flirty?” Does he instruct Stephen Hadley to toss his hair to get Rummy’s attention? It would be less insulting if he’d told Condi to give Rummy a blow job. At least she wouldn’t have been infantalized.
This is your Republican Party folks, protecting you from the terrorists who are coming to kill you in your bed. Feeling safer?
