Shameful

By now you’re probably aware of Speaker of the House Hastert’s crass political decision to prevent the 9/11 Commission from finishing its investigation. According to the Speaker’s spokesman, there are two reasons for this:

“One, if there are recommendations that need action, we need them sooner than later,” Feehery said. “Two, he does not want this to be delayed any further and become a political football in the middle of the campaign.”

CNN’s Aaron Brown displayed a rare moment of journalistic courage last night and called Hastert’s hideousness:

We admit we don’t do causes very well on the program. And I don’t do outrage well at all, yet, tonight, a cause and an outrage. The decision by the speaker of the House to deny the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attack on America a 60-day extension — that’s all, 60 days — to complete its work is unconscionable and indefensible, which, no doubt, explains why neither the speaker, nor any member of the House leadership, nor none of their press secretaries would come on the program to talk about it, despite repeated requests.
The commission itself has gone about its work quietly. It’s had to fight tooth and nail to get necessary information. And now this, an arbitrary decision to deny not just the commission — that’s the least of it — but the country the chance to know all of what happened, how it happened, and how best to prevent it from happening again.
Perhaps, the speaker and his team assume you do not care. I hope they’re wrong. I hope you care enough to write them and e-mail them and call them until they relent. Do that. Do it for the victims and their families. Do it for the country that was attacked and for history.

Great idea. Tell Hastert where he can go:

Congressman J. Dennis Hastert
D.C. Office
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2976
Fax: 202-225-0697

Speaking of politicizing 9/11, The Hill is hardly a tabloid magazine, so I doubt it pulled this tidbit out of thin air. According to Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour, someone at the GOP central has been contemplating using Ground Sero as a convention prop:

According to sources privy to convention planners’ discussions, the 2004 GOP conclave at New York’s Madison Square Garden will be unlike any previous quadrennial gathering of either party. In fact, not all of the main events will be held at the Garden, sources involved in planning the Aug. 31-Sept. 2 convention said.
“The entire format and actual physical setup could be radically different,” one GOP insider commented. “They might not even have a podium, or maybe a rotating podium or even a stage that comes up from underground. It would be like a theater in the round, with off-site events that are part of the convention.”
The source, a veteran official of past GOP conventions, said the 50,000 delegates, dignitaries and guests would watch off-site events on giant TV screens. “Now, we’ll go to the deck of the USS Intrepid as the U.S. Marine Corps Band plays the national anthem,” he said, pretending that he was playing the part of the convention chairman.
“Or, and this is a real possibility, we could see President Bush giving his acceptance speech at Ground Zero,” he added. “It’s clearly a venue they�re considering.”

This must be a low-level aide firing off wild ideas. There is no way that even this White House bunch is stupid enough to attempt to that . . . is there? The backlash in the NYC streets would make the 1968 Democratic Convention protests seem like a prayer meeting in comparison.