Is this respect for the dead?

I was more than a little outraged at the political pageant of two 9/11 widows and a brother who lost his family member to terrorists telling their emotional stories on a GOP stage. It's indecent, disrespectful, and totally effective.

Of course we all know the GOP is in New York to capitalize on September 11, 2001. But the wonderful thing about our nation's response to that tragedy was its bipartisan unity. It didn't matter what political party, race, color, religion, even nationality, you were. In the months after 9/11 the country seemed to forget differences and ban together in a common grieving. We were all New Yorkers -- and then one party led us to division.

What so many people have forgotten is that Bush's response wasn't immediate. I personally think Bush has gotten an overly bad rap for doing nothing in the seven minutes after hearing about the World Trade Center attacks. He was in a schoolroom, reading "My Pet Goat" to children, and did absolutely nothing for seven minutes after hearing that many thousands could be dying and that America was under assault.

That would be ok. Maybe he was thinking through the issue, or mustering courage, or something. But do you remember thinking, as I do, "Where is our President?" It seemed like Bush was AWOL. Not just on September 11, when Air Force One jetted Bush off to hide from potential danger, but also on September 12. And September 13. Not until September 14, a full three days after the tragedy, did Bush come to New York. This is courageous leadership?

It still touches me to see those firefighters and emergency personel working among the wreckage, and to see GWB scrambling amongst to rubble to try to console the nation. It all seems so ordinary now. The President, consoling families and workers, with simple words like "I can hear you." With the benefit of time and perspective, that's what Bush looks like as he stands there in the wreckage a full three days after the attacks. Not a hero, but ordinary. It's shameful for anyone to make an ordinary response to an extraordinary tragedy into a political commercial.