Democrats & Liberals: Archives

If 9/11 Changed Everything

If 9-11 changed everything, then why is the President only willing to talk about it for 1 hour to the 9-11 Commission?

Sure, a Presidents time is important. So lets put this into proper perspective:

• The 9-11 Commission was signed into law on November 11, 2002 by President Bush. That is about 15 months ago. (280 working days if you don’t count his 1 month vacations?)
  
• From July 2003 through February 2004, President Bush attended at least 52 fundraisers. Only one of which was in Washington D.C.
  

• Clinton managed to find time to give 6 hours of sworn testimony to Paula Jones investigators.


• Bush managed to give Tim Russert a full hour interview on national television. Who knows how many hours were spent prepping (OK, given his performance probably not many.)


• Bush managed to give Bob Woodward four hours of scarce presidential time to discuss how he led the country to war.

Now lets add to this insult, that Bush will only meet in private with two members of the Commission. Of course, the Commission should be grateful. After all, the Presidents time is not to be wasted. I just wish the President felt the same about the Commissions time.

However, we should not be surprised. Bush did tell us this would happen in his statement made during the signing of the 9-11 Commission authorization:

As I have noted in signing last year's Intelligence Authorization Act and other similar legislation, the executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.