One step forward, one step back

The federal commission investigating 9/11, chugging in fits and starts and sometimes seeming to work against itself, still appears to be making some progress and is at least serious about what it's doing. How much that will mean in the end remains to be seen. In the meantime, two recent items.

On the upside, from the January 12 New York Daily News (via Information Clearinghouse):

Washington - The federal 9/11 commission has formally decided to ask President Bush and former President Bill Clinton to meet with the panel and to extend its investigation by several months.

Vice President Cheney and former Clinton veep Al Gore also would be called, a spokesman told the Daily News yesterday.

The representative also said the extension was desired "because of alleged stonewalling by the Bush administration and by [New York] Mayor Bloomberg's office," the Daily News said.

On the downside, from the January 15 New York Times:

Washington, Jan. 14 - The executive director of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has become a witness in the inquiry and has been interviewed by his own staff about his involvement in shaping the Bush administration's early counterterrorism strategy, officials said on Wednesday.

In addition, one of the 10 commissioners on the panel, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, was also interviewed this week. The unusual dual roles of the director, Philip D. Zelikow, and the commissioner, Jamie S. Gorelick, have raised fresh questions about potential conflicts of interest in the commission, which has been dogged by concerns about its independence since it was created in 2002.

I fail to see anything "potential" about a conflict of interest when the executive director of a supposedly independent inquiry is a witness in his own investigation.

Finally, on the why are we not surprised side, the shirttail of the Daily News item:

The White House proposed greenlighting the extension if the commission would agree to release the report after the November election, but then officials pulled back the offer, Newsweek reported yesterday.

Now why in the world would they propose that? I just can't imagine....