And now in new and improved spell checked form....
The applause is from a small chorus of "families of 9/11". We've all seen this before. People who are aggrieved and who manage to focus on the wrong cause/party to take out vengeance upon. The 9/11 attacks had specific victims - but it was an attack on the entire country. These misguided folks are trying to focus blame where it does not belong. It's really quite pathetic. And they're trying to articulate a special role or privilege in the process. I had a former colleague who was killed at the WTC - does that give me special position to determine the architecture of the rebuilt WTC or some memorial? No. And the families more direct connection to the crime of 9/11 does not give them a privileged position to act as a peanut gallery for the Democratic partisans who want to turn the Bush Administration into a punching bag.
And let me say this about Jamie Gorelick who is questioning Rice as I write. In George Stephanopoulos' book about his time in the White House he wrote about the scene as the verdict in the O.J. criminal trial was coming down. President Clinton, Stephanopoulos and Gorelick were at the White House watching it on television. Stephanopoulos point out that Gorelick had in her hands a statement to be read to the press at the White House which was a contingency plan for the event that O.J. had been convicted. It would have indicated that an investigation in Mark Fuhrman was to begin at the Justice Department and was intended to diffuse what the White House was expecting to be a race riot in L.A. over a conviction. How do you like that - they prepare for the political consequences of a conviction, but cannot find the time to direct the Justice Department to investigate the federal basis for a prosecution of O.J. on federal conspiracy to commit murder charges. These slimy, ass-covering folks wanted to make sure they kept Maxine Waters happy but couldn't lift a finger to do justice. And Gorelick was right there as Deputy AG.