NORFOLK, July 27 -- The election-season fight over confronting terrorism escalated Tuesday, as John F. Kerry called for the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission to be extended by 18 months to help implement its proposed intelligence reforms and pressure the White House and Congress for fast action.
President Bush did not respond to Kerry's suggestion, but congressional Democrats and Republicans quickened their pace of reacting to the five-day-old report. A Senate committee scheduled a hearing for Friday rather than next week, and House Democrats announced plans to gather Aug. 10 -- ordinarily the heart of summer vacation -- to discuss the report.
John F. Kerry greets supporters after a rally in Norfolk. He said the Sept. 11 panel should issue a progress report on fighting terrorism every six months.
(Dudley M. Brooks -- The Washington Post)
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Rand Beers, Sen. John F. Kerry's national security adviser, talked about the war on terrorism with Washington Post editors and reporters.
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Although some leaders of both parties cautioned against rushing to implement recommendations, others said the public demands prompt response to recommendations intended to avert terrorist attacks.
The 567-page report, which tops bestseller lists and soon will come out in hardcover, continues to reshape the political debate 14 weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Many Democrats believe Bush and congressional Republicans erred by initially seeming reluctant to embrace its recommendations. Within two days, Bush suggested he would enact by executive order some of the recommendations, but Kerry upped the ante on Tuesday by calling for keeping the commission alive.
Two days before he accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, Kerry changed a campaign speech here to propose expanding the life and mandate of the commission, which is scheduled to dissolve Aug. 26. He said the commission should issue a report every six months detailing whether federal officials are moving swiftly enough to tighten homeland security, reorganize intelligence agencies and reshape the global alliance to fight terrorists.
"We understand the threat," Kerry told supporters. "We have a blueprint for action. We have the strength as a nation to do what must be done. The only thing we don't have is time."
Kerry previously endorsed the commission's long list of proposed changes, including the creation of a department-level intelligence director and a reorganization of the terrorism-fighting apparatus. "I hope the president will now take the necessary steps," he said.
Bush, who originally opposed creating the commission, has not embraced the full set of recommendations. Vacationing at his Texas ranch while Democrats are convening in Boston, Bush met Monday by videoconference with his national security advisers to determine which recommendations could and should be made by executive order or similar means that do not require congressional approval.
Administration officials said Tuesday that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft is postponing a trip to Mexico to work on the commission's recommendations.
The White House did not offer any public reaction to Kerry's proposal, but privately an official indicated Bush would not accept the idea. In two appearances Tuesday in Southern California, Vice President Cheney played up the commission's warnings about continued terrorist threats and said this is a bad time to change the nation's leadership.
Cheney, speaking at a luncheon for a congressional candidate in Bakersfield, said that the terrorist enemy "in the words of the 9/11 commission report, issued just last week, is 'sophisticated, patient, disciplined, and lethal.' "
The panel's boldest recommendations -- creating a national director of intelligence and establishing a national counterterrorism center -- would require congressional action, as would the call to revamp Congress's oversight of intelligence gathering. Extending the commission's life presumably would require congressional and presidential approval.
The commission's leaders, former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean (R) and former representative Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), have advocated keeping the panel active and vowed to lobby to have its recommendations enacted.
