911 COMMISSION GETS THEIR EXTRA TIME

President Bush reversed himself Wednesday and said he now supports giving a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks more time to produce a final report.

The commission is scheduled to finish its work on May 27. But panel members last month asked Congress for a two-month extension, citing a need for full analysis of reams of documents about the disaster.

Bush had resisted that request for months, saying through his spokesmen that the administration wanted the panel to complete its work as soon as possible. Privately, White House aides feared that delaying the commission's final report would result in a potentially damaging assessment of the administration's handling of pre-attack intelligence in the heat of a presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, the White House relented, saying it backed moving the deadline to July 26. But White House spokesman Scott McClellan also urged the commission to wrap up its work 30 days after that. If Congress accepts Bush's recommendation, the report would arrive at the end of August, just as the presidential campaign is entering the post-Labor Day final stretch.

"The president is pleased to support the commission's request, and we urge Congress to act quickly to extend the timetable for an additional 60 days for the commission to complete its work,'' McClellan said. The administration changed course because it became convinced the panel needed the extra time, he said. (full story)

Haha, Scott, yeah right. Though delaying the deadline gives the administration plenty of time to develop new reasons to raise the threat level to orange and scare/distract the public.

The interesting thing is that Bush and co. are doing the right thing here, when the alternative was to do the electorally-expedient thing. A positive development for the administration at first glance, but you must keep in mind that 1) They were backed hard into a corner on this one, and 2) They've been blatantly political on everything else lately.

And hmm, this means that the Commission's report will arrive around the same time as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Maybe Bush thinks those two things will cancel each other out. I doubt it; they'll tell roughly the same story (at least on the pre-war), but in different styles and emphasizing different aspects (certainly the connections between the Bushes and the Bin Ladens will get heavy play in Fahrenheit).

You can see why Dubya wants so badly to capture Osama before November.