Molasses in January

After claiming, prior to the release of the final 9/11 Commission report, that they likely wouldn't have time to act on the report's findings until after the first of the year, the Republican leadership of Congress has "flip-flopped." Sensing that their constituents would not look kindly on them recessing for summer vacations while the country remained - or seemed to remain - vulnerable to another attack, they decided on reconvening for a rare August session.

"If the Congress and the president delay unnecessarily, and it's difficult again for me to say exactly when they should act,'' Mr. Kean said, "but if it seems that they are delaying, I think they are going to be held responsible by the American people, especially if the experts are right and there is another terrorist attack."

So perhaps, just maybe, we may see some substantive changes and improvements in the defense of our country.

To show just how important this is to him, Bush was, again, AWOL:

Mr. Bush, who began a weeklong vacation on Friday at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., ordered his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., to lead an administrationwide review of the recommendations and to report to him "as quickly as possible," a spokeswoman said.