The television at Steve’s Barbershop in Peoria, Ill., was tuned to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s testimony before the September 11 commission yesterday, and co-owner Steve Bainter and his customers watched her in awe.
“I’d say she’s done an excellent job, but I was expecting her to do that. My customers agree,” Mr. Bainter said, when contacted by The Washington Times and asked whether he was watching the much-ballyhooed hearing.
The barber said Miss Rice was so effective that she had rattled some of the Democrats on the panel. He chuckled and noted that “one guy,” whom he subsequently identified as former Sen. Bob Kerrey, Nebraska Democrat, mistakenly “called her Doctor Clarke twice.”
In a new book, former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke charged that the Bush administration ignored the threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network in the eight months leading up to September 11. Miss Rice denied those contentions in her testimony yesterday.
Spot checks with about a dozen small businesses and fraternal organizations across the country had most responders offering accolades to Miss Rice.
Beth Bird, a customer at Cafe Manna Java, a coffee bar in Dubuque, Iowa, called Miss Rice’s performance “absolutely superb.”
Mrs. Bird, an artist, said “Dubuque is a Democratic town,” but she feels certain most residents had to have been impressed with Miss Rice’s performance.
Mrs. Bird charged that some Democrats on the committee, notably Mr. Kerrey and lawyer Richard Ben-Veniste, were “extremely difficult” with the star witness, but Miss Rice more than held her own.
“You could really tell who was grandstanding,” said Mrs. Bird, who lives in nearby Galena, Ill.
As for intelligence failures before September 11, the Midwesterner said the panel will find out that what “went wrong has been going on for 30 years, and that it’s ridiculous to blame the Bush administration’s first eight months in office.”
Elijah Fell, a high school senior and U.S. Army reservist in Lawrence, Kansas, said he applauded Miss Rice’s performance. “She did a really good job and defended the president very well,” he said.
But Mr. Fell said he still felt a little uneasy after hearing Miss Rice describe a national security policy in effect before September 11 that was intended to eliminate al Qaeda. “It raises questions as to whether they did everything they could do,” the young man said.
At American Legion Post 38 in Dundalk, Md., bartender Sandy Swan said she caught some of Miss Rice’s appearance before the September 11 panel and was impressed. Ms. Swan said she believes Miss Rice effectively shot down Mr. Clarke’s claims.
“I think she redeemed herself. I think she proved the administration did not ignore al Qaeda,” she said.
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