9/11 Commission

While it would be important to really find out what mistakes were made prior to 9/11, and how to fix them, it is very clear to me that the current commission is a joke. Having it so soon was is bad enough, but having it in an election year makes it worst than useless. Like the early commissions on Pearl Harbor, it is doing much more harm than good.

While I have great respect for Lee Hamilton, and do believe he is trying hard to do an honest job and get at the real problems, having more partisans such as Bob Kerry and especially Richard Ben-Veniste on the commission doom it into becoming little more than a election year partisan exercise. This is even more so with the political activists clapping and cheering in the audience when someone makes a point they like.

For example, what was Bob Kerry doing making a political statement on the current war in Iraq, during a hearing about what happened before 9/11. Then later complains that he did not have enough time.