"Senator, I knew what the price would be."

That was Richard Clarke's response to Bob Kerrey's expression of concern about the assualt on his credibility and character that's poured out of the Bush administration.

I'm sure he did know. After all, he's seen the reponse of the White House to people like Gen. Eric Shinseki, Joe Wilson, Richard Foster, Paul O'Neill and John J. DiIulio, Jr. This is not an administration with a tolerance for bad news. As Clarke told Salon's Joe Conason, "...the Bush White House assumes that everyone who works for them is part of a personal loyalty network, rather than part of the government. And that their first loyalty is to Bush rather than to the people. When you cross that line or violate that trust, they get very upset."

How upset? This upset:


"...in an extraordinary move, the White House outed Clarke as the anonymous official who had defended Bush's anti-terrorism strategy to reporters in 2002."

The White House has gone to great lengths to try to discredit Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism czar,

"President Bush's top aides launched a ferocious assault on the former White House counterterrorism official."

Sounds like a group of folks with something to worry about, dontcha think?