This administration is starting to sound much different than six months ago, when their notes were truer... and their messages far more determined. We've watched the President go on the defensive, after the revelations that the White House knew of terrorist threats against this country last summer. We've learned that the FBI is still more a bureaucracy than a fighting organization... filled with good and dedicated people, but so very poorly led and supported. Then the announced reforms of the FBI... far more PR than reality, and pathetically late even at that. And the PR warnings... look out for terrorist scuba divers, look out for terrorists armed with shoulder-fired missiles. And the head of the FBI saying there will inevitably be successful terrorists acts. Fatalism is not an admirable quality in those upon whom we depend for our national security.

I have no good news for the administration... Congress is back in session Monday... and hearings into what the administration knew and did about terrorist threats will be underway in a matter of weeks. An administration that has refused to answer questions about meetings with Enron executives and which has refused to disclose the names and dates of those who advised the Cheney Energy Task Force could well be tempted to resist openness in responding. I hope not. It's time for this administration to return to the moral clarity that it achieved following the attacks of September 11th, to shed fatalism and restore resolve. There's no role for PR... only the leadership the American people have come to expect. To borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill: we are still masters of our fate.