For being one of only a few insiders to stand in defiance of the White House disinformation juggernaut; for being the only high level government official to acknowledge mistakes leading to 9/11 (though he was the lone West Wing voice screaming for action to thwart the plot); and for apologizing to 9/11 families and the nation for those mistakes.
For standing his ground in opposition to the administration neocons' pathological Iraq obsession; for writing a book which held fast to the truth and spared no detail, no matter how wonky; and for providing a grand example of strength and honor when those virtues were in desperately short supply, Reality Based Nation names former counter-terrorism czar, Richard A. Clarke our Voice of Reality for 2004.