The Bush administration is taking credit for disrupting an Al-Qaeda plot aimed at the November 2nd elections. Great, good to hear. Yet Sen. Biden has stated based on what he has seen (and he is privy to some damn good info!), "I have not seen any hard evidence that there was an active moment that was contemplated in the very near term.... If there was a smoking gun that said we know for certain that was going to occur, I didn't see it."

Look, as I have stated, every American is all for news like this concerning the foiling of potential terrorist attacks (duh!). However, Bush/Cheney have only themselves to blame if when such news is released that many Americans now will hear it with a hugely skeptical ear.

The incompetence and deception now clearly evident when it came to the Iraq war properly places this administration in a highly questionable light. Like the boy who cried wolf, when we are told so many lies and distortions about things even beyond anything having to do with Iraq, who can blame us for not believing everything going forward? GW & Co. did not just squander international goodwill post-9/11, but they also managed to squander any goodwill when it came to the public taking at face value what this administration had to say or report on.

They cannot indignantly respond to such justified skepticism with enraged annoyance ("how dare you think we're playing politics or that we're not telling the truth!"), for they made their bed....

That said, for the record I agree with Richard Clarke when he states, "This has been the best week in counterterrorism since perhaps December 1999 -- the best series of leads, leads going to other plots, leads going to other people, international cooperation." And the reason I agree with it is because Mr. Clarke said it -- not someone within the administration. Until proven otherwise, I can still take on its face whatever Clarke says as truthful, no questions asked.