"The president ought to be ashamed"

First we learn that Tricky Dick Cheney nixed an Intelligence Czar years ago, and nixes it again now.
http://www.slate.com/id/2104867/
Then more bad news: The Bush team blew the cover of a mole inside Al Qaeda, which could have possibly led to Bin Laden himself:
Leak Allowed al-Qaida Suspects to Escape
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The disclosure to reporters of the arrest of an al-Qaida
computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden's terror network to escape, government and security officials said Tuesday. Two senior Pakistani officials said the reports in "Western media" enabled other al-
Qaida suspects to get away. "Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida
suspects ran away," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) acknowledged Sunday that Khan's name had been disclosed to reporters in Washington "on background," meaning that it could be published, but the information could not be attributed by name to the
official who had revealed it.

An even more frightening example of Bush negligence--loose nukes:
An American Hiroshima" That is what I find baffling: an utter failure of the political process. The Bush administration responded aggressively on military fronts after 9/11, and in November 2003, Mr. Bush observed, "The greatest threat of our age is nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in the hands of terrorists, and the dictators who aid them." But the White House has insisted on tackling the most peripheral elements of the W.M.D. threat, like Iraq, while largely ignoring the central threat, nuclear proliferation. The upshot is that the risk that a nuclear explosion will devastate an American city is greater now than it was during the cold war, and it's growing."

Instead of securing our ports from nuclear cargo, or locking up the loose stockpiles in Russia, Bush (who sat out the Vietnam war) is busy smearing John Kerry, a decorated war vet, with the help of some unseemly characters. One of Bush's "Swift Boat Veterans" was a Nixon henchman targeting a young "enemy" Kerry. Another turns out to be a racist, anti-Semite, anti-Catholic.

Inconveniently for Bush, the popular populist John McCain also denounced the smear tactics, calling it similar to the ones used against him. And retired General Tommy Franks breaks ranks with the administration and calls Kerry "absolutely" qualified to become President.

Max Cleland, another highly decorated war hero, former Congressman, and 9/11 Commission member, was right:
"The president ought to be ashamed"
Former Sen. Max Cleland blasts Bush's "Nixonian" stonewalling of the 9/11 commission, his "lies" about Iraq, and his flight-suit photo op on the USS Lincoln after "hiding out" during Vietnam.