Remember that debate over the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security? Not a very significant issue for the country, right?
Joe Conason interviewing Richard Clarke:
McClellan also said that although you criticize the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in the book, you had attempted to become the No. 2 in that department and were passed over — and that’s yet another reason why you wrote this critical book.
They’re trying to bait me, and they’re trying to get me to answer all these personal issues. You know, the fact is that Tom Ridge opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. George Bush opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. And then one day, they turned on a dime and supported it. Why?
As I said in the book, the White House legislative affairs people counted votes. Senator [Joseph] Lieberman had proposed the bill to create the Department of Homeland Security — and the legislative affairs people said Lieberman has the votes; it’s going to pass. They said, “You’ve got the possible situation here, Mr. President, where you’re going to have to veto the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. And if you don’t support it now, if you don’t make it your proposal, not only will it pass but it will be called the Lieberman bill.”
The Lieberman-McCain bill.
The Lieberman-McCain bill, in fact. So that there were two outcomes possible. One in which we have this Frankenstein department, created during the middle of the war on terrorism, reorganizing during the middle of a war. That was possible. It was also possible that a second thing would happen, and that was that Lieberman would get credit for it. And therefore the president changed his position overnight, and became a big supporter of the Department of Homeland Security.