The Richard Clarke Rumor Mill

Further proof that the denizens of Castro Street, et al., will be the collective Willie Hortons of 2004. Condoleezza Rice's decision to testify in front of the September 11 Commission may have defused (at least temporarily) the neutron bomb that's apparently been prepared for Richard Clarke, but it seems that the rumor mill has already been set in motion. Given the speed of the Internet, what's done even a little may not be capable of being undone. Especially if the rumor hits the mainstream, it might become the perfect storm of 2004: Richard Clarke as the enemy on so many levels, discreditable because he's so generally discreditable. I've been re-reading Paul Monette's Becoming a Man in preparation for class, and have been struck by the level of rage that pervades the work. To his furious history of closeted, right wing sexual hysteria (including, as an appropriate parallel, Roy Cohn and HUAC) we might duly and sadly add the shadowy (almost) outing of Richard Clarke.