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Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and one-time Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton have destroyed what little credibility the 9/11 commission had left. Thanks to their premature departure from Thursday's White House evidentiary hearing with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, which the commission whined for months was absolutely vital to its work, Americans learned beyond any doubt that this investigation is merely bureaucratic wheel-spinning and political grandstanding. In the middle of receiving the testimony, Mr. Kerrey took a powder because he was due at Capitol Hill to twist arms for more dough for his New School University in Manhattan. Mr. Hamilton...

<p>Republican lawmakers said yesterday that by walking out of their meeting Thursday with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney early, some members of the September 11 commission did more damage to the panel's credibility.</p> <p>"It's amazing to me that after the focus that the commission has put on that meeting, the insistence that every commissioner be allowed to attend, and that the president give whatever time the commission thought was necessary, that commissioners wouldn't stay," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican.</p>

Sept. 11 commissioners thought they were limited to 2 hours with Bush 2 hours, 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) - The Sept. 11 commission said Friday it went into its private interview with President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Vice-President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) with the understanding it would be restricted to about two hours. The disclosure, which came amid questions as to why two Democratic commissioners left the three-hour meeting early, appears to contradict the suggestion by the Bush administration in March that it wouldn't be setting time limits amounting to one hour each...

WASHINGTON, April 29 — President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were questioned in the Oval Office for more than three hours on Thursday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. They said intelligence warnings they received throughout 2001 suggested that Al Qaeda was poised to strike overseas, not on American soil, according to accounts of commission and administration officials. After a meeting that both the White House and the commission had billed as historic, Mr. Bush appeared before reporters in the Rose Garden and described the question-and-answer session with the 10 members of the bipartisan commission as "very...

Hoping to shape history's judgment, President Bush told the Sept. 11 commission Thursday his administration tried to protect America from terrorists as warnings grew before the devastating attack of 2001. Members pressed him on his response to a controversial memo that raised the threat of plane hijackings and attacks with explosives. "I answered every question they asked," Bush said after he and Vice President Dick Cheney met with the 10-member commission for three hours in the Oval Office. Presidential scholars called the session unprecedented. Some of Bush's answers were "surprising" and "new," said former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democratic member,...

<p>April 30, 2004 -- We never thought former Sen. Bob Kerrey was taking seriously his responsibilities to the national 9/11 commission. But his insulting mid-meeting abandonment of President Bush's sitdown with the body yesterday was beyond the beyond. Kerrey and fellow Democrat Lee Hamilton bugged out early from the three-hour sitdown - each pleading "a prior engagement" - while Bush and Vice President Cheney sat calmly and answered the commission's questions.</p>

<p>April 30, 2004 -- In a stunning snub, two Democrats on the 9/11 commission yesterday abruptly walked out in the middle of the Oval Office interview with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Both early-departing panelists, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and ex-Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, insisted they had prior commitments - but their sudden slip out the side door of the White House left Washington and some fellow commission members in shock.</p>

When President Bush and Vice President Cheney appear before the 9/11 Commission today, they can justifiably claim they took prudent measures — given the flimsy intelligence they'd received on terrorist threats against our homeland. Most importantly, once the attacks occurred, they radically changed their whole way of operating. They — to use the cliché of the day — "connected the dots," as best they could. Their critics did not. The very phrase "connecting the dots" highlights actions based on less-than-certain information — on history, hunches, instincts. After all, these are "dots," not fully filled-in scenes. Take Iraq, the second big...

CITING PRIOR COMMITMENTS ... Developing

The members of Parliament probably sought to know why George Bush had not undertaken a decisive action after having received a note of the services of information August 6, 2001 and entitled "Ben Laden determined to strike the United States". The American president, George W Bush was heard, Thursday April 29 during three hours at the White House, with his vice-president, Dick Cheney, by the board of inquiry independent into the attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Bush then declared that they had both answered all the questions which had been asked to them. "It was significant" and "I am...

WASHINGTON — President Bush (search) and Vice President Dick Cheney (search) are meeting Thursday behind closed doors with the panel investigating what went wrong with U.S. intelligence before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The two leaders will not be under oath and no transcript or recording of the proceedings will take place. The White House said that it has no plans to report the remarks by the president and vice president. Part of the reason, aides say, is that much of the discussion will be classified. ~snip~ "If they thought it would help him, they'd televise it," James Thurber,...

The White House press corps has got its collective knickers in a twist over President Bush's plans to testify with Vice President Dick Cheney before the 9/11 Commission on Thursday. "That's so they can keep their stories straight," sneer the pundits, with some even joking that Bush is Cheney's ventriloquist's dummy. But wait. When ex-President Clinton testified before the Commission three weeks ago, he wasn't alone either. Though most of the press continues to pretend he handled the grilling solo, according to Time Magazine in a report the next day, Clinton was accompanied by his White House counsel Bruce Lindsey...

Bush, Cheney's joint appearance unprecedented By Dana Milbank The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Chairman Thomas Kean's requirement that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney appear together before his commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, quipped: ``Well, we recognize that Mr. Bush may help Mr. Cheney with some of the answers.'' Kean's remark sparked laughter among the assembled reporters because it turned upside down the assumption of the question, and of much of official Washington: that the White House requested the joint appearance, scheduled for April 29, so Cheney could coach Bush on his answers. While Bush has...

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will meet next week with members of a commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. White House spokesman Scott McClellan says President Bush and Vice President Cheney will meet with commission members Thursday, April 29 at the White House. He says both men look forward to answering whatever questions the commission has. Unlike other members of the administration, the president and vice president will not be testifying under oath. The White House initially sought to limit the president's meeting with the bi-partisan commission to a one-hour session with only its chairman and...