America usually faces disaster by overreacting. On the afternoon of September 11, George W. Bush pulled John Ashcroft aside and told him to do whatever it takes to “make sure something like this never happens again.”

Turning Ashcroft loose with such an order is like giving a drunk a credit card to a liquor store. He’s gonna have one hell of a good time but God knows how many people will get hurt and how many laws might be broken in the process. -- From Capitol Hill Blue, of course.