Now that the Bush administration has revealed it had specific warning in August 2001 that Al-Qaida wanted to hijack one or more US airplanes, after eight months of saying there was no warning at all, Bush says criticism has a "whiff of politics." The Florida Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee says that criticizing Bush is morally wrong: "The only thing that this uproad does is give aid and comfort to the enemy."

This is the same group of GOP incumbents that has said if you oppose anything on their agenda, from giving billions to oil companies to restricting free speech in high schools, you're "aiding the enemy." The same group that has tried repeatedly to blame it all on the Clinton administration even though Gore's task force called for increased airport security (the GOP-led house, backed by airline money, killed that inconvenience). The same group selling pictures of Bush looking concerned on Air Force One on September 11 while he flew around the country in panic. (As Salon reminds, the White House insisted for weeks that there was "confirmation" that Al-Qaida was trying to slam a jet into Air Force One and the White House, a story proved false by CBS and AP.)

The GOP has used 9/11 to ram regressive reactionary policies down the nation's throat for eight months, most having nothing to do with real national security or with the investigation, and any criticism is "helping the enemy." Now there's evidence that some dots could have been connected, and they have the gall to complain about "politics."

I'm not advocating this, but it needs to be pointed out: If the Supreme Court hadn't stopped the vote-counting in Florida and Gore had been inaugurated President (not just elected), and had announced Wednesday night that his White House had warnings of Al-Qaida hijackings before the attacks, the GOP House Judiciary Committee would be voting on the impeachment resolution today, if not yesterday. There would be attack ads against Gore and every other Democrat running in every contested election district today. And anyone who complained it was "politics" would be shouted down by the far-right monopoly on cable and radio "news" programs.

The same crew who said lying about sex threatened national security thinks actual threats to national security are just "political" ploys. Can politics get any worse in this country?