THAT PRESIDENT BUSH has called for the creation of a Cabinet department for domestic defense hardly is surprising. Nor is such a department a bad idea, at least not on paper. Notwithstanding some bureaucratic opposition, the department will be established, probably by the end of the year.

Politically speaking, the administration has had a rough time during the past two weeks, thanks to press and congressional probing of executive-branch intelligence failures before September 11. Until last week’s announcement, the White House had seemed opposed to creating a department of homeland security–spokesman Ari Fleischer repeatedly said it wouldn’t “solve anything.” But Bush couldn’t have wanted to be thrust further on the domestic-security defensive by veto-proof legislation establishing such an agency.