The Report report.

I don't want to be the only political blogger on the planet with nothing to say about the 9/11 Commission Report, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting excited about it. There's plenty of bad news for Bush tucked inside (David Corn offers an excellent overview), but in terms of actual electoral effect, I'm afraid it will be largely an 'eye of the beholder' situation. Does anyone believe that a Bush supporter will be turned by the report? Does anyone really believe that a Bush antagonist will find themselves feeling more sympathetic to him because of the report? In fact, the Commission's dedication to achieving non-partisan unanimity was largely successful, so the utility of the report as a partisan instrument is largely non-existent.

Which would be fine, I suppose, if I believed that anything constructive was going to come from the report's recommendations. The Republican leadership has already made it clear that any real consideration is going to be put off until the next session, though, and that consideration is going to be heavily affected by the outcome of the November elections. My sense is that any changes that will be directly attributable to the Commission's work will be negligible, though some kind of nod will be made to the recommendations eventually, if only to provide cover against the continued demands of the 9/11 families for some kind of action.

Still, I'm glad the Commission was formed, and particularly grateful for the transparency of their efforts. One reason that the report seems somewhat anti-climactic to me is doubtless the extent of the public hearings the Commissioners held, some of which were dramatic, and some of which were truly informative (and in many cases, there was an inverser relationship between drama and true information). For that, we should also be grateful to the 9/11 families. Whenever and wherever Bush attempts to posture as grateful for, or interested in, the work of the Commission, everyone should keep this blast from the past in mind.

Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel

May 23, 2002

(CBS) President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.

Mr. Bush said the matter should be dealt with by congressional intelligence committees.

CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante reports that Mr. Bush said the investigation should be confined to Congress because it deals with sensitive information that could reveal sources and methods of intelligence. Therefore, he said, the congressional investigation is "the best place" to probe the events leading up to the terrorist attacks.

Having the investigations handled outside the partisan controls in the Congress was a nightmare for Bush. His worst imaginings weren't quite realized, but as the David Corn piece cited above reveals, they weren't completely unfounded, either.