I think I've not done a good job of expressing my disagreement with Avedon Carol regarding Cynthia McKinney. I'm going to take one more shot, then I'm going to move on to other things.

I have no problem with the idea of looking into the question of what we knew and when we knew it regarding 9/11. We certainly need to know how we can do better in the future. My point is that Cynthia McKinney's way of calling for investigations is absolutely the wrong way to do it. The "public inquiries" into train wrecks and plane crashes that McKinney cites are useful to our understanding of their cause because they are undertaken in an atmosphere of impartiality. A serious call for honest inquiry here would not have included speculation about profit motives. McKinney is pointing a finger first and calling for an investigation second. For that reason, I have no faith that she wants to get at the truth of the matter and not to go on a mission to find dirt to throw. It's no different than any of the investigations of the Clintons that Dan Burton was always calling for. I find that sort of thing distasteful no matter who the target is.

It turns out, by the way, that Rep. McKinney has had nasty things to say about Al Gore as well. I therefore retract my assertion that she would not have attacked Al Gore in the same fashion were he President instead. I stand by my underlying point that McKinney's statement was meant to get attention rather than to make a serious attempt at fact finding.