The 9/11 hearings are a threat to Bush's re-election campaign...

That is why Bush interrupts the hearings to give his supporters a free campaign commercial. That is why they are confronting this issue head-on. That is why Richard Clarke must be discredited. If he is believed as credible, that could interrupt the smooth path of regaining the White House because of 9/11 and their plans to ride that horse all the way to the finish line.

Because that is the only horse they have. They will not permit someone to doctor that horse or even to speak ill of that horse. It is their ticket to 4 more years in the White House. They will do whatever they have to do to keep the odds high and the voters betting on a winning ticket. That is why the 9/11 Commission will be hard-pressed to accomplish very much in these hearings. There is simply too much at stake.

Zero meetings but we had lunch occasionally and discussed it.

they would win too. I just hope these hearings do the same to bush as they did to Nixon, get rid of him but, this time, I would rather see it via an election just in case Cheney isn't thrown out too.