Jonathan Rauch on the 9/11 commission: I haven’t been following the commission’s work, and have no informed opinion — but I much respect Rauch’s views, and he’s written extensively on the pathologies of American government procedures. Some key paragraphs (emphasis added):

The time and attention of Washington’s top policy makers is Washington’s most precious commodity. According to news reports, Rice and her staff spent hours preparing her public testimony: briefing her, assembling timelines, “war-gaming” likely questions. Each of those hours was an hour not spent on national security. Meanwhile, an armed uprising — the most dangerous yet — was erupting across Iraq.

Maybe Rice’s diverted hours didn’t matter. Sometimes, though, when policy makers take their eye off the ball, bad guys kick it. In 1998, Saddam Hussein took advantage of President Clinton’s impeachment distraction to throw weapons inspectors out of Iraq, and that same distraction may have impeded an effective U.S. response. . . .

[D]istractions in time of crisis do not help. And Washington could not have chosen a worse moment than now for a paroxysm of finger-pointing. “Our focus has been on 9/11 — who did what and who didn’t,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told ABC’s “This Week”. “But it ought to be on June 30,” the date when sovereignty is supposed to be transferred in Iraq.

Economists speak of transaction costs. Washington needs to master the concept of investigation costs. A government saddled with a high-profile probe is a government less focused on other tasks, and wartime is the worst time for distractions. . . .

UPDATE: Here’s a different view from another writer whose work I also much like, Matt Welch:

Above all, Bush’s attitude toward sensitive information has remained consistent from his pre-9/11 behavior: Transparency is overrated, secrecy is a virtue, and post-Watergate reforms curtailing the government’s ability to snoop, prosecute and act freely are a serious obstacle to protecting the country.

These beliefs don’t make him venal, just wrong. History has shown that a government that acts without the checks and balances of scrutiny is a government that abuses its power. Secrecy is often just another word for “it would be embarrassing for me if you saw that.” And transparent examination and debate, however untidy, unlocks the genius of distributed, free-flowing intelligence — one of America’s biggest competitive advantages — and gives citizens their deserved seat at the decision-making table.

Consider for a moment how things would be if Bush would have gotten his way on the 9/11 hearings: We would not have seen the strangely cathartic (and/or infuriating) gesture of Richard Clarke apologizing to the surviving families of Sept. 11 victims, Condoleezza Rice would not have faced public grilling, Bush probably wouldn’t have held a rare primetime press conference, and we certainly wouldn’t have been able to read the infamous PDB memo. Reforms would have been handled by the wise men and women of the congressional intelligence committees and the internal investigators at the CIA and FBI. Our knowledge of the changes would be limited to whatever leaks were thrown our way (as opposed to daily sworn testimony of officials like George Tenet and John Ashcroft). . . .

(Thanks to reader Pete Guither for the pointer.) As I said, I have no informed opinion on the subject myself, but I’m happy to pass along opinions from others who know more than I do. I link, you decide.