apple juice

Happy hour with George and Dick

The president did not mention, but we will remind everyone, that the White House historically has made the commission’s work more difficult. Indeed, if it was up to the White House, the panel would not even exist. The White House opposed the creation of the 9/11 commission in the first place, and tried to cut its funding after it was created. It has been slow to produce documents from the Bush and Clinton White Houses. Bush tried in vain to speak only to the two co-commissioners, not the entire commission, and for only one hour. Condoleezza Rice initially refused to appear in public and under oath before the panel, and did so only after the White House struck a deal that the panel could not call any other White House officials to do the same. These are the people who have “nothing to hide.”

There is an excessively linked version of the above paragraph at the salon website.

It just kills me when I hear quotes about Bush and Cheney’s testimony like,

“there were no tense moments”

“there were moments of laughter”

“I wish the American people could have seen it.”

I would like to know exactly what the hell could be worth laughing about when you’re discussing the events that led to the deaths of 3,000 people?

To be fair, those came from Former Govenor of Illinois, John Thompson. And he seems to be a bit of a looney. Most of the quotes from commision seem to indicate that it was a good session. But why did they confiscate all the notebooks after the session, why could there not be a stenographer? Why no recordings or TV cameras. Why Bush and Cheney together?