The finger's back.(AT WAR III)(political tale of USA)

THERE'S no doubt that a lot of Republicans enjoyed seeing Bill Clinton again, in full finger-wagging, I-did-not-have-sexual-relations-with-that-woman fury, during his confrontational interview on Fox News Sunday. But it was still strange to see the former president go ballistic when asked, by Fox's Chris Wallace, this perfectly reasonable question: "Why didn't you do more, connect the dots, and put [al-Qaeda] out of business?"

It's something Clinton has had five years to think about. And yet his first reaction was to lunge at Wallace and denounce Fox News. "I want to talk about the context in which this arises," Clinton began. "I'm being asked this on the Fox network." Well, yes. A little later, Clinton mused conspiratorially that Wallace "set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because [Fox owner] Rupert Murdoch is supporting my work on climate change."

Huh?

Clinton didn't make much more sense when he addressed the merits of the question. "At least I tried [to destroy al-Qaeda]," he said. "That's the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy."

That's a lot to pack into one soundbite. And none of it holds up under scrutiny. First, on the claim that he "tried" to take out Osama bin Laden, Clinton repeatedly referred viewers to the book Against All Enemies, by former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke. But the book shows quite clearly that while, yes, ...