■ NEWS ITEM: “Washington governor Gary Locke’s trip to China bore its first fruit Monday with news that a Kent-based printing-press maker signed a contract worth $11 million a year with the People’s Daily newspaper, the Communist Party organ.” Hmm . . . well, the People s Daily might be to the right of the Seattle papers.
■ Bill Clinton, settling further into his role as Second-Guesser-in-Chief, said that he warned incoming President Bush about the threat from Osama bin Laden. If Clinton actually did this, it was helpful, although not nearly as helpful as taking serious action against bin Laden’s network during his time in office would have been. In early 2001, Bush faced a grave terrorist threat that had become steadily graver because of what the Clinton administration had done and left undone during the 1990s—the CIA had been prevented from recruiting overseas agents, the FBI had been further hamstrung, immigration policy had been loosened, airport security had remained lax, and bin Laden’s terrorist conspiracy had been allowed free and easy sanctuary in Afghanistan. If he had really been trying to help, Bill Clinton would have given Bush another warning: “I’ve left the nation in great danger.”
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