Everything's Political

Agence France Presse reports that international newspaper editorials "remembered the victims of the Septebmer 11 attacks and condemned those responsible, but many also expressed deep unease at the US government's reaction to the atrocity.

"Britain's Independent newspaper remembered five years ago 'images of a world briefly united in sympathy for an America reeling and grieving from the attack on the Twin Towers and the deaths of almost 3,000 New Yorkers.'

"'How moving but dated they seem today,' the paper said, lamenting the daily slaughter in Iraq, the nuclear crisis in Iran, the growing insurgency in Afghanistan and the failure to address the Israeli-Palestine issue.

"The Financial Times said: 'The way the Bush administration has trampled on the international rule of law and Geneva Conventions, while abrogating civil liberties and expanding executive power at home, has done huge damage not only to America's reputation but, more broadly, to the attractive power of Western values.'"

Not Partisan?

Michael Tomasky blogs for the American Prospect: "Both the Times and the Post note this morning that Bush laid two wreaths at ground zero last night in the company of George Pataki, Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani. The Post goes well out of its way to remark that the event 'left aside the partisan rancor' that . . . well, that Bush & Co. have enforced on the country since about 9-14.

"If this event was so nonpartisan, where were [Democratic Senators] Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton? . . .

"In what sense does an event that features four Republicans but excludes the two senators who were representing New York at the time of the event, but who happen to be Democrats, leave aside partisan rancor?"

Tonight's Address

Here's how press secretary Tony Snow previewed Bush's address at 9 p.m. ET at yesterday's gaggle :

"It's not going to be a political speech -- there are no calls to action, there are no attempts to segregate Democrats from Republicans, but instead to talk about what we learned about the world and how Sept. 11 reshaped the way in which we view the growing menace of what we now refer to -- the Islamist terrorist threat represented by bin Laden, Zarqawi and others, and that as a nation we don't have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for them to hit us again . . .

"And it will be a time to reflect on how we move forward so that we can fight as vigorously as possible the conditions and the terror network that gave rise to Sept. 11 in the first place."

Sounds pretty political to me.

Bush Tussles with Lauer

NBC "Today" show host Matt Lauer called it a "spirited" interview. It was indeed. I'm not sure if Bush ever actually poked Lauer in the chest, but the presidential index finger certainly did a lot of pointing and waggling.