The Sound You Just Heard Was Hitch Shitting Himself

AP reports this morning that " President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks today and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel."

We can be certain of the truth coming out now.

Bush insisted only a bipartisan group should be able to compel testimony and documents, fearing that one-party subpoenas would lead to ineffective finger-pointing and allow the panel to be used merely to score political points. [Para.] The 10-member commission will be evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees. As Bush demanded, the president will name the chairman and it will take at least six members, in most cases, to approve subpoenas.

Very certain.

Bush called on members to report back more quickly than 18 months, saying the nation needed to know quickly how it can avoid terror attacks in the future. "The sooner we have the commission's conclusions, the sooner we can act on them," Bush said.

But wasn't the Administration opposing this commission's creation for the past year? Yes. It's all in the article. I guess our need to know quickly is a relative thing.

As Snitchwell says, "[Americans] can either persist in averting their gaze from the egregious impunity enjoyed by a notorious war criminal and lawbreaker, or they can become seized by the exalted standards to which they continually hold everyone else." Well, at least we know where Bush stands on that one.