By Andrew L. Jaffee

I’ve sat here watching “The Path To 9/11,” expecting that the “controversial” scenes — the ones Bubba Clinton, Madeline Albright, and Sandy Berger objected to — would’ve been edited. They weren’t. El ABC tiene cajones. The “establishment” is already going into action: The AP opines, “ABC Airs 9/11 Series Despite Criticism,” citing “fabricated scenes.” The truth of the matter is that the Clinton administration was distracted by the Lewinsky scandal, and was too politically-correct to confront Islamic radicalism — par for the course for a group of anally-retentive, obsessive-compulsive litigators. Bubba’s own statements regarding Monica were proof enough of his excessive political slickness. El Presidente Bubba and his hatchet-woman Albright had no compunction in defeating Serbia, but missed the boat on the 1993 WTC bombing and the African embassy bombings — and the Kosovo conflict was contained to European soil, nowhere near the U.S. For Clinton et al to now scream ¡cállate!, threaten ABC, and advocate censorship for political CYA is unconscionable. But, mini-series or not, there’s plenty of blame to spread around. Many Republicans were too busy tying up Congress trying to crucify Clinton during the 90s.

Scene: Actual footage of Clinton spewing plausible deniability about his Oval Office trysts with Monica Lewinsky:

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

Next scene: A special agent speaks with Richard Clarke and John P. O’Neill, discussing the possible assassination of Osama:

Its OK if someone kills bin Laden – as long as he [Clinton] didn’t give the order?

Next scene: Intelligence officials plead with Sandy Berger for the go-ahead to kill bin Laden:

Berger: I don’t have that authority.

A few scenes later: Madeline Albright worries about the purely political ramifications of taking out the Taliban, and refuses to take military action.

The only thing ABC did was to preface the scenes described above with a disclaimer. Based on what I’ve read, ABC specifically kept in the “controversial” scenes. You go, Iger.