No wonder the Canadians don't want him

The Telegraph newspapers might be slipping out of the control of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy as its future ownership post Conrad Black is decided. But fellow ex-Canadian Mark Steyn is determined to provide every last ounce of service to the VRWC while he is still there. In his zeal to put together this weekend's Sunday Telegraph column, however, he unintentionally reveals the sources of two of his key spin points for his bash Richard Clarke piece, a genre that has kept the VRWC guys extra busy this week, given that Clarke is such a threat, someone on the inside who dared to criticise the Dear Leader, George W. Bush.

His article betrays a reliance on possibly senile Vice President Dick Cheney and Fox News thug Sean Hannnity, because he uses spin points put forward by these chumps, spin points that have proven so dodgy that few others in the VRWC have been willing to use them. First, he uses the phrase

mid-level bureaucrat called Richard Clarke,

which is just a variant of Cheney's line in an interview last Monday that Clarke was "out of the loop." Here's the problem -- even Condi wouldn't back up that one. As numerous people have pointed out, Clarke wasn't out of the loop on terrorism; he was the loop, as the chief anti-terrorism official in the Bush administration. Economist-blogger Brad DeLong has usefully collected the essential facts in this post, in which he also amusingly describes and acts upon his frustration that the New York Times won't just come out and call Cheney what he is, a liar.

Steyn then tries to rescue the beloved Condi from Clarke's accusation that she'd never heard of al Qaeda upon entering the Bush administration, and here's his proof:

In October the previous year [2000], Dr Rice gave an interview to WJR Radio in Detroit in which she discoursed authoritatively on al-Qa'eda and bin Laden -

Sadly for Mark, this piece of spin had been incomparably debunked by the Daily Howler before he even used it. Thursday's Howler noted the emergence of this spin point on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News; Hannity introduced the tape of this Detroit interview while he had Newt Gingrich on as a guest. We'll let Howler take it from here:

[Howler] But Hannity was eager to make Clarke a liar. So he subjected Newt Gingrich to this:

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, I want to ask you this. This new book by Mr. Clarke that is out there, he accused Condoleezza Rice, I think he was particularly vicious towards her, of having never heard of al Qaeda until he mentioned it to her in early 2001. Quote, he said, “Her facial expression gave the impression she’d never heard of al Qaeda before.”
Well, I have a tape of Condi Rice. She was on a WJR radio interview in Detroit with David Newman, and I want to play this because it contradicts that frankly mean-spirited lie that’s in this book.

[Howler sarcasm] Wow! Hannity really had the goods! He was going to refute Clarke’s mean-spirited lie! Rubes leaned forward in their chairs. And the rube-runner played this tape:

RICE: Osama bin Laden do two things [sic]. The first is you really have to get the intelligence agencies better organized to deal with the terrorist threat to the United States itself. One of the problems that we have is a kind of split responsibility, of course, between the CIA and foreign intelligence and the FBI and domestic intelligence.
There needs to be better cooperation because we don’t want to wake up one day and find out that Osama bin Laden has been successful on our own territory.

[Howler] Sean was thrilled. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it, Mr. Speaker?” he asked. Diplomatically, Newt changed the subject.
Why did Speaker Newt move on? Duh. Clarke didn’t say that Rice had never heard of bin Laden; he said she may have been stumped by the term “al Qaeda.” But readers, Rice didn’t use that term in this tape! And trust us: If Rice ever said “al Qaeda” in public before she met Clarke, the tape would be there in Sean’s hands.

Does the archetypal Telegraph reader, the retired colonel in Cheltenham, know that he's getting American VRWC leftovers in his Sunday paper? We think he should be told.

UPDATE: Howler is forced to return to this point about whether Condi had heard of al Qaeda, because the VRWC spinners just keep using it.