Everybody Wants Condi

I know a girl who’s tough but sweet
She’s so fine, she can’t be beat.
She’s got the info that I desire
Unless she shreds it or puts it in the fire.

I want Condi, I want Condi!

But she’s testifyin’ that the warning didn’t come down.
Ain’t no finer girl in town.
She’s loyal and bland, just what the Preznit ordered
So sweet, she makes his mouth water.

We want Condi, We want Condi!

Condi under oath, there’s nothing better
But there’s nothing new, she could have just sent a letter.
Some day soon Colin Powell will resign
Then we’ll have Condi all the time

I don’t think I want Condi, I don’t want Condi…

Anway, here’s a transcript of the testimony.

I just skimmed through it, but I did find a few interesting parts:

The question was about whether the administration focused on Iraq instead of Afghanistan after 9/11

There was a discussion of Iraq. I think it was raised by Don Rumsfeld. It was pressed a bit by Paul Wolfowitz. Given that this was a global war on terror, should we look not just at Afghanistan but should we look at doing something against Iraq? There was a discussion of that.

The president listened to all of his advisers. I can tell you that when he went around the table and asked his advisers what he should do, not a single one of his principal advisers advised doing anything against Iraq. It was all to Afghanistan.

When I got back to the White House with the president, he laid out for me what he wanted to do. And one of the points, after a long list of things about Afghanistan, a long list of things about protecting the homeland, the president said that he wanted contingency plans against Iraq should Iraq act against our interests.

There was a kind of concern that they might try and take advantage of us in that period. They were still – we were still flying no-fly zones. And there was also, he said, in case we find that they were behind 9-11, we should have contingency plans.

But this was not along the lines of what later was discussed about Iraq, which was how to deal with Iraq on a grand scale. This was really about – we went to planning Afghanistan, you can look at what we did. From that time on, this was about Afghanistan.

So, we focused on Afghanistan — sure, some people like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz wanted to talk about Iraq too, and we did, but not like we talked about Afghanistan. And of course, there were, you know, contingency plans, in case it turned out, after we had invaded Afghanistan, that Iraq was really behind 9/11. But everything was really about Afghanistan.

I also thought Condi’s exchange with Ben-Veniste about whether the President’s Daily Brief titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States” indicated that he planned to attack the United States. (Per Condi, it didn’t — it was just a historic document. )

VENISTE: If you are willing to declassify that document, then others can make up their minds about it. Let me ask you a general matter, beyond the fact that this memorandum provided information, not speculative, but based on intelligence information, that bin Laden had threatened to attack the United States and specifically Washington, D.C. There was nothing reassuring, was there, in that PDB?

RICE: Certainly not. There was nothing reassuring. But I can also tell you that there was nothing in this memo that suggested that an attack was coming on New York or Washington, D.C. There was nothing in this memo as to time, place, how or where. This was not a threat report to the president or a threat report to me.

BEN-VENISTE: We agree that there were no specifics.

So, unless it said the time, place, and exact method of the attack, what good would it do for the President to worry his pretty little head about it, and cut short his vacation.

Anyway, did you have any favorite parts?