THAT LIBERAL NPR

There was a lot to warm Republicans' hearts on today's Morning Edition: an story about Kerry campaign advertising that's overwhelmingly negative about his campaign, a story that says support for the Iraq war among veterans is near-unanimous, and, most notably, "Commentary: Terrorism" by National Review columnist and former Republican National Committee communications director Clifford May.

May's piece isn't yet another silly "news report" from an alternate universe in which Bush prevented 9/11, but it's a straightforward list of pet right-wing 9/11 what-ifs -- and thus it's full of nonsense.

May suggests that Congress wouldn't have sat still for a preemptive strike on Afghanistan (can May please name a presidential exercise of force Congress has prevented in our lifetime?) and that the ACLU would have howled in protest at the roundup of Muslim jihad plotters (something that, as I've pointed out, never happened when Algerians connected with the millennium bombing plot were arrested).

But my favorite May argument is (I'm paraphrasing): What newspaper editorial board would have supported a preemptive assassination of bin Laden? Er, you mean, besides the ed boards of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Washington Times? Not to mention every conservative commentator on Fox News and nearly every talk-radio host in America?

And you know who would have had Bush's back? Clinton. I'm serious. He loved to defend Republicans when he agreed with them. Remember Newt Gingrich's reaction when Clinton was criticized for bomb attacks aimed at bin Laden: "House Speaker Newt Gingrich distanced himself from the speculation over Clinton's motives, calling the barrage of missiles 'the right thing to do at the right time.'" If Clinton's book ever comes out, I bet he'll thank Gingrich for that, sincerely -- and I think he would have returned the favor to George W. Bush. I suspect Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger would have also confirmed the seriousness of the bin Laden threat. And I know that two Clinton NSC guys, Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, would have taken Bush's words about bin Laden seriously -- look at their book, The Age of Sacred Terror, and you'll see they consistently tried to issue warnings about al-Qaeda, in articles and op-eds written and published well before 9/11.

Short of impeachment (by a Republican House?), what would have prevented Bush from doing anything he wanted in 2001? No one blocked Ashcroft. No one reduced the tax cut, or even managed to make it conditional on avoiding deficit spending, a plan favored by Bush's own Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill. The press and Congress gave Bush free rein in 2001 -- and he took full advantage of it.