Piling on - we can hope, anyway

You go, guy.

(CBS, December 17) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

Tom Kean is probably the closest thing to a genuine moderate you'll find in the increasingly wacko precincts of the GOP. I remember when he was governor of New Jersey. Those of us who were unhappy with the idea of a Republican governor were on the whole pleasantly surprised with him. History does sometimes repeat itself.

Footnote: It also spirals around in odd ways. The man Kean beat to become governor (by less than 1800 votes) was Jim Florio. Florio later became governor, had to raise taxes in a time of fiscal crisis, and was run out of office as "too liberal." The runner-outer in that case was Christine Todd Whitman - the same Christine Todd Whitman who last May resigned as administrator of the EPA after being sniped at by Bushites on much the same charge.

Christie Whitman too liberal. Did I say spirals? I meant gets loopy.