Compare and contrast: 29 items on terror from Clinton to Bush:

1. A mere 38 days after taking office, the World Trade Center is
attacked for the first time. Clinton captures and imprisons Ramzi
Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah.

2. January 1994: Clinton's first crime bill provides for stringent
anti-terrorism measures, as does the more specifically targetted
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Clinton also
requested and received funding for sponsoring simulated terrorist
attacks to test the effectiveness of municpal response teams.

3. July 1996: Congressional Republicans object to Clinton's proposed
expansion of the intelligence agencies wiretap authority. Newt Gingrich
tells Fox News Sunday: "When you have an agency that turns 900
personnel files over to people like Craig Livingstone... it's very hard
to justify giving the agency more power."

4. September 1996: Republicans in Congress refuse all of Clinton's
requested counterterrorism spending. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): "The
administration would be wise to utilize the resources Congress has
already provided before it requests additional funding."

5. Summer 1998: Clinton issues series of top secret directives to the
CIA authorizing the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and several of his
top lieutenants.

6. August 1998: Alleged chemical weapons factories in Sudan are bombed.
The bombings are met with bipartisan approval: "The President did
exactly the right thing. By doing this we're sending the signal there
are no sancturies for terrorists." -Newt Gingrich. Richard Clarke,
counterterrorism expert under both Bush and Clinton, testifying before
the 9-11 commission, on the bombing: "To this day, there are a lot of
people who believe that it was not related to a terrorist group, not
related to chemical weapons. They're wrong, by the way. But the
President had decided in PDD-39 that there should be a low threshold of
evidence when it comes to the possibility of terrorists getting their
access -- getting their hands on chemical weapons. And he acted on that
basis."

7. Paul Bremer to the Washington Post on Clinton: "he correctly focused
on bin Laden". "Overall, I give him very high remarks" - Robert Oakley,
Reagan counterterrorism czar.

8. Economy prospers, crime is down, abortions are down, and teenage
pregnencies are down. Clinton, however, very concerned about the
"growing threat of terrorism".

9. August 2000: Bush says "If called on by the commander in chief
today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, 'Not
ready for duty, sir.'" Proceed to kick the crap out of Afghanistan the
following September.

10. October 2000: USS Cole is attacked by suicide bombers, killing
seventeen sailors and wounding 39 others. Clinton decides to leave any
response to the incoming Bush administration.

11. Winter 2000: Sandy Berger briefs Condolezza Rice on al Qaeda. Later
NSA Rice denies then confirms that this meeting took place.

12. Richard Clarke lays out the whole Clinton al Qaeda plan; NSA Rice
likes him so much she decides he should stay.

13. January 2001: Outgoing Clinton officials say "The Bush team thinks
we're obsessed with terrorism".

14. February 15: Former US Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman issue a
report that warns "mass casualty terrorism directed against the US
homeland
is of serious and growing concern". Recommends the creation of a
National Homeland Security Agency.

15. April 30: Clarke presents plan to fight al Qaeda and to start a
National Homeland Security Agency. Gets floated around the office, but
is more or less ignored.

16. May: The Bush administration gives $43 million to the Taliban in an
attempt to convince them to quit growing and exporting opium.

17. July 10: FBI agent sends headquarters a memo concerning some middle
eastern students learning to fly who have no interest in taking off or
landing.

18. July: Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet warns NSA Rice
that a major attack on American soil is probably imminent.

19. August 6: George Tenet delivers to the vacationing Bush a memo
entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.", saying al Qaeda is
planning on hijacking planes and possibly attacking New York. No action
is taken. The next day Bush tells the press pool "I've got a lot of
national secuirty concerns that we're working on - Iraq, Macedonia,
very worrisome right now."

20. August 16: INS arrests Moussaoui, saying he's "the type of person
who could fly something into the World Trade Center".

21. August 25th: Bush still on vacation. Clarke's memo of fighting
terrorism still sitting around, waiting for his attention. Bush tells
press "Spot's a good runner. You know, Barney-terriers are bred to go
into holes and pull out varmint. And Spotty chases birds. Spotty's a
great water dog. I'll go fly fishing this afternoon on my lake." Later
builds a nature trail.

22. Feeling the heat in August about an "imminent terrorist attack",
acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard requests an additional $58 million
in anti-terrorism funding from the Department of Justice.

23. September 5: Eight months after Rice had been briefed, and 11
months after Clinton suggested Bush create it, Clarke's plan finally
reaches the principals comittee. Bush is back from his month-long
August vacation. Cheney, Rice, Powell, and Rumsfeld decide to advise
Bush to adopt Clarke's plan with a phased in approach. They wait
several days before they put it on his desk.

24. September 9: The Senate Armed Services Committe recommends shifting
$814 million from missile defense to anti-terrorism funding. Secretary
Rumsfeld informs the Senate that he will recommend the President veto
this.

25. September 10: Ashcroft sends his budget request to Bush. Includes
spending increases in 68 different programs, none of which deal with
terrorism. Ashcroft passes around a memo to his department of his seven
top priorities, again terrorism isn't on the list. Acting FBI Director
Pickard receives Ashcroft's official denial for Pickard's request for
more anti-terrorism funding.

26. September 11: Using hijacked airliners, Saudi and Egyptian members
of al Qaeda attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon, killing
thousands. Another hijacked airline crashes to earth in eastern
Pennsylvania, apparently brought down as part of a battle between the
hijackers and the passengers. Military moves to DefCon 3, all domestic
flights are grounded.

27. September 11-15: Some 142 Saudi nationals, including 24 members of
the bin Laden family, are allowed to fly out of the country.

28. November: Clinton's "defunct, cut, non-battle ready military" kicks
the crap out of Afghanistan.

29. Military is so dismantled it prompts Lawrence J. Korb, director of
national secuirty studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, to say
after the Iraq invasion "[t]he fact of the matter is that most of the
credit for the successful military operation should go to the Clinton
Admnistration."