Bush Might Be Questioned Longer by 9/11 Commission

Bush Might Be Questioned Longer by 9/11 Commission

The White House said on Tuesday it was possible President Bush could be questioned longer than the hour he agreed to by a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an apparent concession that came after criticism from Democrat John Kerry.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked several times if Bush would stick to his insistence the session before the commission be restricted to one hour, said it was scheduled for an hour but that "the president of course is going to answer all the questions they want to raise."

"Nobody's watching the clock," he said.

The shift in position came a day after the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Kerry of Massachusetts, attacked Bush on the issue at a time when the president was visiting a rodeo in Houston. He had criticized Bush for agreeing to spend only an hour with the commission.

"It's good to see that the president has finally found time in his schedule to spend more than an hour with the 9/11 commission to investigate the greatest intelligence failure in our nation's history. I think all Americans hope that his cooperation with the commission will lead to real answers instead of more stonewalling," Kerry said in a statement issued by his campaign...

Republicans fear the commission's findings could be politicized at the height of the presidential campaign if it were to show there was evidence the Bush administration failed to act on any tips that the attacks were being planned.

"I certainly hope that people don't politicize it. This is too important to become politicized," McClellan said.

Politicize it?! If the 9/11 attacks were the result of the Bush administration's failure to act on intelligence then this absolutely needs to be brought to the attention of the voters. A intelligence failure of that magnitude should result in Bush's impeachment, but I'll settle for just getting him the hell out of the White House.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that had this occurred while Clinton was still in office they'd have had hos head on a pike 3 years ago.