Posted on 03/09/2004 10:55:45 AM PST by Kay Soze
Mar 9, 11:58 AM (ET)
By WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it was possible President Bush could be questioned longer than an hour he agreed to by a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an apparent concession that came after criticism from Democrat John Kerry.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked several times if Bush would stick to his insistence the session before the commission be restricted to one hour, said it was scheduled for an hour but that "the president of course is going to answer all the questions they want to raise."
The shift in position came a day after the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Kerry of Massachusetts, attacked Bush on the issue at a time when the president was visiting a rodeo in Houston.
"If the president of the United States can find the time to go to a rodeo, he can find the time to do more than one hour in front of a commission that is investigating what happened to America's intelligence and why we are not stronger today," Kerry said.
Polls show national security remains Bush's strongest attribute and the Democrats' strategy is to try to raise doubts about him on this subject.
Bush's overall approval rating is at 50 percent, equal to the lowest of his presidency. The Kerry attack put the White House on the defensive yet again as it has been for weeks under a barrage of criticism from Democratic challengers during their primary campaign.
The 9/11 commission is to complete its work by the end of July, after recently getting a requested two-month extension.
Republicans fear the commission's findings could be politicized at the height of the presidential campaign if it were to show there was evidence the Bush administration failed to act on any tips that the attacks were being planned.
Democrats say it is hypocritical for the Bush campaign to use 9/11 images in television advertisements to promote his national security credentials while the president has refused to meet for longer than an hour with the commission.
While leaving the door open to a longer session, McClellan said Bush would still only see the commission chairman and vice chairman, although the panel has been appealing for him to meet with all members. He said all 10 members typically have not shown up for every interview.
As for Kerry's criticism, McClellan said, "It appears that he does not want to let the facts get in the way of his campaign."
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has been reviewing documents and conducting interviews about circumstances around the 2001 hijacked plane attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
It recently questioned national security adviser Condoleezza Rice for four hours. McClellan said only five members of the commission showed up for that session.
Some commissioners have complained about their access to information from the White House, but McClellan said the Bush administration has given "unprecedented cooperation" to the panel, by providing more than 2 million documents, more than 60 compact disks of radar, flight and other information, more than 800 audio cassette tapes of interviews and other materials, more than 100 briefings and more than 560 interviews.
"We have provided the commission access to every bit of information that they have requested, including our most sensitive national security documents," he said.
How did scheduled for one hour morph into refused to testify for only one hour. And the people here fall for it.
THIS from a guy who can't even bother to show up to his Senator job.
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