No wonder Dr. Rice looked so mad this morning
Rice Is Agreeable to Return for More of 9/11 Panel's Queries
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and RICHARD W. STEVENSON
WASHINGTON, March 25 — Under mounting pressure from Democrats about its response to the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the White House offered Thursday to have Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, answer more questions from the Sept. 11 panel. At the same time, President Bush forcefully denied accusations that he had ignored the severity of the threat from Al Qaeda.
The White House announced late Thursday that Ms. Rice was willing to appear before the panel again, but only in private and not under oath. Some Republicans said that Mr. Bush was being undercut by the perception that a senior White House official would not cooperate, while his aides were out pummeling Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism chief who has accused the Bush administration of not heeding warnings before Sept. 11.
The moves came as the White House also sought to deflect new criticism of Mr. Bush for his handling of counterterrorism issues in the months before the attacks and to contain the fallout of an investigation that Democrats and some Republicans said could cast a shadow over his re-election campaign.
The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, called on the White House to cease "character attacks" on Mr. Clarke.
"I have a simple request for the president today: Please ask the people around you to stop the character attacks they are waging against Richard Clarke," Mr. Daschle said. "Ask them to stop their attempts to conceal information and confuse facts. Ask them to stop the long effort that has made the 9/11 commission's work more difficult than it should be."
You remember the picture:
