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Playing politics with the 9/11 commission
A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis 'yes, Mr DeLay' Hastert, said: "I can't imagine a situation where they get an extension."
Eric Boehlert of Salon reports:
After months of stonewalling the panel's requests for information about the terror attacks, the White House is signaling that it opposes extra time to complete the probe.
[M]any analysts believe that the White House's tense relationship with the panel suggests its fear that the findings, if released just before the election, could be politically damaging. While some have suggested the commission needs only three extra months to finish its review of 200 interviews and 2 million documents, that would mean the committee's report could be released at the end of August. The Republicans are due to convene in New York from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2 for a convention that will extol Bush's command of the war on terror and nominate him to run for a second term.
The White House has opposed the three-month extension, but some Republicans are now suggesting a compromise: a six-month extension that would push the final report's release back after the November election.
[M]any analysts believe that the White House's tense relationship with the panel suggests its fear that the findings, if released just before the election, could be politically damaging. While some have suggested the commission needs only three extra months to finish its review of 200 interviews and 2 million documents, that would mean the committee's report could be released at the end of August. The Republicans are due to convene in New York from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2 for a convention that will extol Bush's command of the war on terror and nominate him to run for a second term.
The White House has opposed the three-month extension, but some Republicans are now suggesting a compromise: a six-month extension that would push the final report's release back after the November election.
"Six months is more politically viable than three months," a senior Republican congressional aide told Salon with a straight face.
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