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After Bob (9/11 Commission) Kerrey has a swatting at flies snit fit during Condi's testimony, John Kerry bravely takes up the torch... err, I mean, the swatter! I'm sure Moqtada would approve, aren't you?

<p>My home is on a cattle farm. Flies visit my porch after hatching in the fields, and I tend to swat the more determine beasties that irritate. My swattings do nothing to end the proliferation of flies born from the dung out in the fields. Bob Kerry wanted to know from Dr. Rice ‘just what flies President Bush had tried to swat.’ It was, of course, a partisan hack attack aimed at casting doubt on this administration’s efforts to fight terrorism foreign and domestic. Let’s dissect the foolishness of Kerry’s assault, before the likes of Chris Mathews, Andrea Mitchell, Ambassador Holbrooke, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather have the opportunity to make B2 bombers out of imaginary flies (yes, imaginary, since Kerry implied Rice alluded to actions taken, when she was in fact addressing the president’s desire for change in policy).</p>

Rice's response to Bob Kerrey (transcript -- scroll down) is amusing: KERREY: Why didn't we swat that fly? RICE: I believe that there's a question of whether or not you respond in a tactical sense or whether you respond in a strategic sense; whether or not you decide that you're going to respond to every attack with minimal use of military force and go after every -- on a kind of tit-for-tat basis. By the way, in that memo, Dick Clarke talks about not doing this tit-for-tat, doing this on the time of our choosing. RICE: I'm aware, Mr. Kerrey,...

The National Commission on Terrorist Acts Upon the United States ostensibly has been exploring how the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could have happened and how they could have been prevented. In light of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony Thursday, I, like so many others, have figured out an easy answer: Get the panel to construct a time machine so that all those geniuses who now believe that Sept. 11 easily could have been averted can wave a magic wand and reinvent the past. That's sort of what is going on anyway. Some commissioners seem to have forgotten what...

The national Commission on Terrorist Acts Upon the United States ostensibly has been exploring how the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have happened and how they might have been prevented. In light of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony Thursday, I, like so many others, have figured out an easy answer: Get the panel to construct a time machine so that all those geniuses who now believe that Sept. 11 easily could have been averted can wave a magic wand and reinvent the past. That's sort of what is going on anyway. Some commissioners seem to have forgotten what...