[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Mr. Bush Gets Started

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Mr. Bush Gets Started

July 27, 2004
 


 

We're happy to hear that President Bush wants to get
started on the 9/11 panel's recommendations for overhauling
the nation's creaky and unreliable intelligence system.
There are some things he can do by executive decree - and
the president also should not wait until after the Senate's
hearings in August to take a public stand on the
commission's more ambitious and controversial reforms. 

We also understand the politics behind the president's
sense of urgency, which was first reported on the eve of
the Democratic National Convention. But one of the things
we celebrate about democracy is that politics and public
pressure sometimes compel people to do things they may not
want to do. The commission's very existence is a case in
point. Pressure from the families of 9/11 victims forced
Mr. Bush to drop his opposition to its formation, and the
measured protests of its chairman, Thomas Kean, overcame
the administration's attempts to stymie the panel's work.
So if the opening of the convention, or criticism of Mr.
Bush's decision to go on vacation immediately after getting
the 9/11 report, spurred the president's action, that's
fine. 

But the results have to be more than a showpiece packaged
to give the appearance of action without making substantial
reforms. There is reason to wonder how ambitious Mr. Bush
will be, since powerful politicians, including members of
his administration, have been opposed in the past to some
of the commission's boldest and most necessary proposals.
Half-measures won't fix the American intelligence system;
the Bush administration has tried those since 9/11, and the
commission's report, with its list of 40 major steps not
taken, shows vividly that the half-measures were not good
enough. 

It's also not clear that Mr. Bush can carry out the panel's
top recommendations on his own. The proposed post of
national intelligence director, with real authority over
the budgets and personnel of the 15 intelligence agencies,
requires an act of Congress. Making it another White House
staff job, like the one held by Condoleezza Rice, would be
inadequate. The national intelligence director must be
subject to Senate confirmation, along with the official in
another proposed job, a high-level post running a new joint
counterterrorism center. 

In the end, if Mr. Bush comes up with big ideas, the
political motivations won't matter much. He might, by
example of leadership, even spur Congress to act on reforms
that require legislation and to follow the 9/11
commission's excellent advice for fixing the sloppy way it
currently supervises the intelligence agencies. There is no
reason to wait until after the election to get this work
done. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/opinion/27tue1.html?ex=1091983397&ei=1&en=686afb426d5db0c9


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