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John Dean: Ridge is likely backtracking because of ‘political pressure from the Bush clan.’

In recent days, former Homeland Security Adviser Tom Ridge has been backing away from claims he made in his memoir that Bush administration officials may have been pushing to raise the security alert level for political reasons. Ridge has been on an apology tour this week, insisting that he never meant to insinuate any bad motives on his former colleagues. Last night on MSNBC, former Nixon adviser John Dean said that he believes Ridge likely received pressure from Bush officials to backtrack:

OLBERMANN: Is there any reason to suggest that that back pedaling owes to political pressure or something like that?

DEAN: I would suspect the fact that Rumsfeld and Ashcroft came out and hit him pretty hard has affected his thinking on this whole matter. He doesn’t seem to be as clear on what he wrote now that they’ve spoken out on the issue.

And also Keith, he did indeed imply a rather serious criminal charge if this conduct indeed had been undertaken. So I think there’s a lot of reasons that he probably has backed off and political pressure from the Bush clan probably is part of the reason.

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Transcript:

OLBERMANN: Mr. Ridge, it would appear not sufficiently outraged by his publisher`s poetic license to ask them to change their Website which tonight still reads “Ridge effectively thwarted a plan to raise the national security alert just before the 2004 election.”

Joining us now a man who has on a couple of occasions seen politics infect national governance, Nixon White House counsel John Dean author of “Worst than Watergate” and the recently reissued classic “Blind Ambition.” Thanks as always for your time tonight, sir.

JOHN DEAN, FORMER NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Correct me if I`m wrong, but is it not impossible for Mr. Ridge to know whether politics influenced the inner thinking of Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and therefore not possible for Mr. Ridge to know that it did not?

DEAN: It is not possible in any way I know of that he could channel both these people and get their thinking. It is quite clear when you listen to him on Rachel last night, he`s saying read my book, read my book. You read his book and he`s saying exactly the opposite of what he`s saying now. So he`s clearly back pedaling.

OLBERMANN: Is there any reason to suggest that that back pedaling owes to political pressure or something like that?

DEAN: I would suspect the fact that Rumsfeld and Ashcroft came out and hit him pretty hard has affected his thinking on this whole matter. He doesn’t seem to be as clear on what he wrote now that they’ve spoken out on the issue.

And also Keith, he did indeed imply a rather serious criminal charge if this conduct indeed had been undertaken. So I think there’s a lot of reasons that he probably has backed off and political pressure from the Bush clan probably is part of the reason.

OLBERMANN: Do we infer that the prospect that this was a description of possible criminal acts might not have been known to Mr. Ridge before the book was written? Or would he have been aware at some point, would somebody have said, even just somebody vetting the manuscript have said, “Hey, you know what, I know a lawyer somewhere and he says this might be — this might be a crime you`re describing?”

DEAN: Well, I — he`s a former U.S. Attorney from Pennsylvania. Theoretically he would know about Title 18371, which is the conspiracy to defraud the government by abusing or misusing its agencies for — in this instance, political purposes would fit perfectly under that description.

It`s what happened to a lot of people in Watergate, it`s what happened in Iran contra. And it`s difficult for me not to believe he didn`t know about it. And I think this is one of those oops, maybe I shouldn`t have said that. And so he`s recalibrating now and backing down from it — from where he actually presently stated in his book.

OLBERMANN: But he has now managed to paraphrase the famous Charles Barkley allegation, Charles made that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography.

You have written your share of books. Did you get to sign off on jacket copy, how the book was going to be publicized, what points were going to be emphasized in attempts to gain interviews or reviews or attentions of other kinds?

DEAN: Keith, fly copy, book jackets, the publicity, it’s on the site. That’s all based on material in the book. So it was clear they had the impression that he indeed — he had been pressured and that he had dealt with the pressure accordingly, that’s why they used these as selling points.

All the books I’ve done, the editors who write these have always sent me the copy in advance for my approval. It`s difficult for me to believe that Ridge was not sent this copy and did not approve it before it went on the jacket.

So I’m kind of baffled by him backing off of it other than the fact he’s being pressured to back off of it.

OLBERMANN: Well, and also that leads to the final question here, which is how in the world does that — this whole process not pass the laugh test? Let alone the sniff test.

DEAN: It doesn’t pass easily.

In fact, I think what he’s done is undercut his book. I actually was rather interested in the book when I heard — at first that he was going to come clean and say yes, there was pressure and give some examples of it.

But when I got to the book and his actual statements, there`s now a big gap.

OLBERMANN: John Dean, columnist for FindLaw.com, author of “Broken Government” and actual real books that he stands behind. Great thanks as always, John.

DEAN: Thank you, Keith.