Thursday, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was questioned at length by the commission. The Democrats tended to ask the tougher questions, the same way the Republicans a bit tougher on her former counter terror chief Richard Clarke, who has accused the administration of ignoring the al Qaeda threat before 9/11.
This is a venerable commission that includes two former senators, two former governors, two former congressmen, a former secretary of Navy, a former deputy attorney general, all of whom appeared to have a firm grasp on the issues at hand. Five Democrats, five Republicans, chosen by Democrat and Republican leaders.
And yet even if they present a unanimous report, which I expect they will, I still fear some angry partisans will claim the commission was biased one way or the other whether the report appears to place more responsibility on the Clinton administration or the Bush administration.
Well let me go on the record now and say: I will accept and defend whatever the commission finds. This commission will provide the document of record to help this country assess how 9/11 happened and how to prevent it from happening again. They‘ll have conducted thousands of interviews, many of them classified, with all the people who had access to all the relevant information, including both presidents, Clinton and Bush, Vice Presidents Cheney and Gore.
I make a commitment to you today: I will take to task leaders of either party who make political attacks on the report once it is released, probably this summer. I‘m tired of the finger pointing with no one accepting any responsibility.
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