TODAY the New York Times expressed its opinion about Richard Clarke and the 9/11 commission. In an editorial this morning, the paper hunkered down to the tough job of assigning blame for underestimating the threat of terrorism. It will be little surprise in whose direction the gray finger points. “There are still plenty of questions to be answered about what happened, particularly about the apparent lack of urgency in the Bush administration’s antiterrorism efforts before 9/11,” the paper declares. The Times goes on to note that “there was at least no question about the Clinton administration’s commitment to combat terrorism . . .”

Not so the Bush administration. “The real impression gleaned from the hearings is not that the Bush administration was indifferent to the threat of terror, but that its officials had trouble fully understanding it.”