Florida & September 11

I can't help wondering if the dispute over Florida's vote in the 2000 election indirectly aided al Qaeda. While the Bush & Gore teams battled it out in the courts, the Clinton administration's days were winding down. More than a month of transition time was lost. That was time when the Bush team should have been getting up to speed on the threats, etc. posed by al Qaeda (& others).

Then the hostility over the election spilled over into the nomination-approval system for Bush's cabinet and other team members. All of this must have delayed the task of getting the Bush team's anti-terrorism strategy together.

Commissioners asked why, after the Clinton administration warned the Bush national security team that al Qaeda was such a threat, the Bush national security team took so long to put together its plan.

Florida? Of course, even if Florida was a big part of the problem, neither party has any vested interest in promoting this possibility.