Get down! Get angry! Get moving!

Hopefully, the commission investigating 9/11 is finally - finally! - reaching the end of its patience. The White House, after resisting the creation of the commission (and then trying to install Henry Kissinger as its chair), has dragged its feet every single step of the way. Even now, there has been no commitment from the administration for public testimony from prominent White House officials nor any agreement on private testimony from senior ones.

The 10-member commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is in a race to complete its work by the deadline of May 27. So consistently has the administration impeded the effort that this last week the commission formally announced it was seeking a two-month extension of the deadline because they say there is no way to finish sooner. The White House - slavishly backed by its Congressional lapdog, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert - refused, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

This is how bad it's gotten. The White House adamantly refused to allow commission members - any of them - to review the classified President's Daily Briefings. (Apparently former NJ Governor Tom Kean and former House Intelligence Committee member Lee Hamilton, co-chairs of the commission, are security risks.) Finally in November, an agreement was reached to allow four people, three commissioners and Executive Director Philip Zelikow - to view the documents. However, to do so they had to go to the White House and look at them while they were being observed. They could take notes - but the notes had to be left behind until the White House approved them! And of course on the same basis, the four were barred from telling anyone, including fellow commissioners, what they'd seen.

That examination was completed weeks ago - but the Shrub team is refusing to release the notes. And that just may be - hopefully, anyway - what gets the commission off its collective keester with the realization that the Bush crew is not going to give up anything without a fight. From the January 30 Washington Post:

Lack of access to the materials would mean that the information they contain could not be included in a final report about the attacks, several officials said. ...

The standoff has prompted commission members to discuss using subpoenas to obtain either the summaries or the entire catalogue of President's Daily Briefs, several sources said.

Democratic commission member Timothy J. Roemer, a former Indiana congressman, said that "the convoluted and tortuous process set up by the White House has bottlenecked. If it's not resolved within the next few days, I believe we have to pursue other options."

They wouldn't be the first subpoenas the panel has issued; last fall the Pentagon, the FAA, and New York City were forced to provide documents that way. But so far members have tried to avoid a direct confrontation with the administration. That could be about to change. Which would be a very good thing.

And why, do you say, is the White House being so recalcitrant? The New York Times for January 28 has the simple answer.

Administration officials have acknowledged concern that Democrats, particularly the Democratic nominee for president, will try to make use of the report's findings to embarrass Mr. Bush, especially if the report contains any suggestion that the White House failed to act before Sept. 11 on intelligence suggesting that a catastrophic attack might be imminent.

And of course a two-month delay would bring it to the end of July, politically a much worse time than the end of May. But the Bushites are not completely unreasonable about an extension, of course not. The Washington Post notes that

[l]egislation to be introduced next week in the Senate would extend the commission's deadline until next January, avoiding the election altogether.

This will undoubtedly be sold on the basis that they want to make sure the commission has more than adequate time to do a complete and thorough job, I mean, they wanted an extension, we're giving them an extension, if you oppose this you're obviously just looking to embarrass the president and how horribly partisan and political of you and we of course are only interested in the truth, and....

Whenever you hear a line anything like that, just ask yourself why they assume the report would be an embarrassment for Bush. Then remember the Chinese proverb that "some questions need only be asked."