Politics, politics, politics

Every time I begin to think the Bush administration is coming to its senses (albeit kicking and screaming sometimes), it turns around and pulls a boneheaded stunt straight out of a Three Stooges two-reeler. I mean, executive privilege or not, how could President Bush and his advisors not realize how bad it would reflect on them to have Condoleeza Rice talk to every media outlet in the country, but refuse to speak to the official 9/11 investigation? Politics aside, is simply looks bad. They've given in, finally, but about two weeks too late in my opinion.

So the President's men (and women) are now cooperating with the 9/11 investigation. Right? Maybe not. Imagine my surprise to read in the San Antonio Express-News this morning that the Bush team is refusing to turn over documents from the Clinton Administration relating to efforts against terrorism: Clinton Lawyer Says Bush Administration Is Denying 9/11 Commission Full Picture

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks isn't getting a full picture of former President Clinton's terrorism policies because the Bush administration won't forward all of Clinton's records to the panel, a lawyer said.

Bruce Lindsey, Clinton's legal representative for records and a longtime confidant of the former president, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that only about 25 percent of nearly 11,000 pages have been turned over.

"I don't want (the commission) drawing the conclusion the Clinton administration didn't do X or Y and then there be a document that contradicts that and they didn't have access to that document because the current administration decided not to forward it to them," Lindsey said.

That New York Lawyer contains the gist of the Express-News story, which does not appear to be online. But the more pressing question is, "What are the President's advisors thinking?" Since the 9/11 panel has already come down pretty hard on the Clinton administration for being too timid and indecisive when dealing with terrorism, you'd think the Bush team would want to release everything they could to further discredit the Democrats. The alternative is that the Clinton administration did leave strong warnings for their successors, warnings which were ignored and potentially damaging during this election cycle. Of course, either of those lines of thought ignores the fact that from a moral standpoint, the administration should be cooperating with the 9/11 investigation without question, in every way, shape or form possible.

This behavior is cast in an even more absurd light when you consider that the Clinton Library has been cooperating extensively, granting access to more than 6,000 documents that otherwise would remain sealed for another two years: 9/11 panel scours Clinton records

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Federal commissioners investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks have been poring over some 6,000 documents from former President Bill Clinton's presidential archive.

Archivists for Clinton's presidential library spent three months gathering papers requested by the commission and recently finished sending the information to Washington, said David Alsobrook, director of materials collection.

While presidential records are sealed for five years by law after a president leaves office, an exception was made to allow early access for the September 11 commission, and in some other cases.

But then again, President Bush opposed the initial creation of the 9/11 investigative committee, and has never been all that rah-rah over the whole thing. I don't believe he ever considered Al Qaeda a priority, and terrorism was merely an annoyance to be dealt with in passing. Iraq was always his focus, made obvious by his infamous, "They tried to kill my daddy," declaration three years ago. The "Great Man's Son" syndrome plays into it, surely. But that's a gross simplification. A thoughtful analysis of the current administration's mindset can be found in this article from the Christian Science Monitor: New Glimpses of Bush Worldview

WASHINGTON – An extraordinary fortnight of revelations about US preparedness before Sept. 11 has provided at least this preliminary picture: When the Bush foreign policy team took office in 2000, it was determined to focus on big nations and traditional power geopolitics, not Al Qaeda and the new terrorist threat.

The Clinton people? Sure, they'd made terrorism a priority. But top Bush officials were dismissive of their predecessors' performance, and determined to avoid what they felt were Clintonesque mistakes.

And that will be the end of our political lesson for today, class.


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