Nick Confessiore on the Clarke counter-attack gone awry: As others have pointed out, they've been unable to refute any of the factual charges Clarke has made, and have been reduced to an all-out war against his credibility, attempting to depict him, variously, as a self-promoting opportunist, a partisan hack, or a hypocritical or inconsistent bureaucrat. I watched some of the testimony Clarke delivered to the 9/11 commission yesterday, and was impressed by Clarke's tenacity and clarity in explaining and rebutting attacks on him, clearly spoon-fed from the White House, made by the GOP commissioners. (I was also impressed by his appearance on Larry King's CNN show, during which King asked all the gotcha questions the Clarke's opponents would have wanted, and Clarke managed to both answer them effectively and explain the political strategy of which King was being made a pawn without actually insulting King. It was quite a performance.) Meanwhile Tom Daschle today made an uncharacteristic show of calling attention a strongly-held contention that's different from the President: "I have a simple request for the president today," Mr. Daschle said on the Senate floor. "Please ask the people around you to stop the character attacks they are waging against Richard Clarke. Ask them to stop their attempts to conceal information and confuse facts. Ask them to stop the long effort that has made the 9/11 commission's work more difficult than it should be." From his mouth to Bush's ears.