The hardest criticism to handle is often the criticism that we most need to hear. Judging by the reaction of the reporters at Fox News to former President Bill Clinton's outburst during an interview this weekend, Clinton's critiques fall squarely into this category.
The outburst was sparked when the interviewer, Chris Wallace, asked Clinton why he hadn't done more to catch Osama bin Laden after the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.
The idea that Clinton didn't do enough to combat terrorism has been sparked recently by the fictional miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which critics claim insinuated Clinton was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal to pay attention to the threat of terrorism.
In one of their promotions for the interview, Wallace talks with a fellow Fox News reporter about the interview. One of them comments that he hadn't seen Clinton that upset since the Lewinski scandal.
That only further begs the question: who, exactly, was too obsessed with the Lewinski scandal to do their jobs?
The answer may be the journalists who oversaturated American television, newspapers and radio shows with talk about the president's sexual misconduct while trouble was brewing.
Take, for example, former FBI director Louis Freeh's rarely mentioned pleas for a bigger counterterrorism budget.
According to his book, My FBI, Freeh - who ran the organization from 1993 until his resignation three months before Sept. 11 - requested 1,900 new employees for the FBI's counterterrorism department between 2000 and 2002.
They got 76.
Should Clinton be held solely responsible for what could've been prevented by congressional action, especially during a time when it had a Republican majority?
More importantly, where are the tough questions being asked of current administration officials about our current efforts to curtail terrorist threats?
Clinton is certainly not above criticism for what his administration did (or didn't do) to prevent terrorist acts against the United States.
But far more important than criticizing government officials six years after their term of office is asking the tough questions of our current leaders about why they failed in their duties.