Oddly Inept

The Bush Administration's handling of the bipartisan Commission investigating the 9/11 tragedy grows worse -- and more strangely self-destructive -- with each passing day. Following its earlier attempts to withhold documents from the panel and then to deny its members vital testimony, it has now been reported that President Bush's staff has been withholding thousands of pages of Clinton Administration papers as well.

Why the Bush team would care about protecting Bill Clinton's views on terrorism is mysterious. Unless, of course, the Bushies were indeed asleep at the switch during the first nine months of 2001. After all, Donald Rumsfeld was actually on Capitol Hill on Sept. 9, threatening a veto of a $600 million diversion from star wars to counter-terrorism.

This latest distressing episode followed the White House's pattern of resisting the Commission in private and then, once the dispute becomes public, as with National Security Advisor Condi Rice, reluctantly giving up. At a time when the American people desperately need reassurance that the government was functional (at the very least), Bush clenched his jaw, threw Rice to the lions and walked away without taking responsibility.

As Bill Press observed yesterday, this is "one of the biggest screw-ups in White House history."

It's bizzare almost beyond belief.

 Posted by glenn