Posted on 05/01/2004 1:45:48 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
Bush's 9/11 panel meeting was useful
2004-05-01
Oklahoman Editorial
For all the buildup to President Bush's and Vice President Cheney's interview by the 9/11 commission, Thursday's Oval Office session evidently was mostly anticlimactic.
Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said the 31/2-hour meeting produced information the panel didn't have previously, but no surprises.
Other members characterized the session as cordial and productive. "The president was very forthcoming and answered all of our questions," said Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste. "I don't think we have the need to ask any further questions of the president."
Two even left before it was over. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey took leave of the leader of the free world to meet someone on Capitol Hill. It's better than saying you need to go home to wash your hair, but not much. So much for the concern that Bush wouldn't give the commission enough time.
Still, the president emerged from the meeting chipper and optimistic. He told a gaggle of reporters in the Rose Garden that he and the vice president answered every question. Participants said Bush, not Cheney, did most of the talking in response to questions, upsetting the myth that Bush needed Cheney as a crutch to get through the interview.
Bush said he expects the commission will make a valuable contribution to future administrations. This is a kind assessment. We suspect Bush's initial doubts about commissioning the inquiry haven't been allayed by the panel's obvious dysfunctions.
Some members have turned the public hearings into grandstands for political drum-beating. Others have done too much talking to the press, publicly announcing their conclusions even though the committee's final report isn't due until late July.
Finally, Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, as a member of the Clinton administration, was so intimately involved in forming the U.S. government's pre-9/11 attitude toward terrorism that she should've been one of the panel's public, under-oath witnesses instead of hectoring others about what they did and didn't do to prevent the attacks.
We will hope for pleasant surprises in the commission's findings -- substance, insight and real prescriptions for changes in the way intelligence is gathered, analyzed and distributed -- that will make it very hard for another 9/11 to occur.
Translation: "The President let it be known that he has evidence of Democrat corruption and malfeasance that could kill the Democrat Party for decades to come, and he will make that evidence public if he hears another peep outta me or any of the other scumbags."
Is Slade Gorton retarded??? He looks and acts like he's an INBRED!!hehe ! (click on the little pic).
Congressman Joel Pritchard with Washington's U.S. Senators Dan Evans and Slade Gorton.
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