Spotlight may be on 9/11 report

WASHINGTON -- Senator John Kerry is heading into his nominating convention with a new strategy to outmaneuver President Bush on terrorism: embracing the final Sept. 11 commission report and its demands for a sweeping overhaul of the national intelligence services in order to prevent another attack.

Kerry was quick to endorse the panel's central proposals, including the creation of a new national director of intelligence position; Bush has said he intends to review the suggestions before signing any executive orders or pushing new legislation.

That difference in approach, according to prominent Democrats and even some Republicans, will almost certainly thrust the Sept. 11 commission findings on terrorism into the spotlight during the presidential campaign and potentially force Bush to consider a new intelligence review before the end of the year.

''This is exactly what we'd hoped for. We're delighted that Senator Kerry has come out and endorsed it and intends to keep it high [on the campaign agenda]," Republican commissioner John Lehman said in an interview. ''Our strong hope is that President Bush will do the same."

Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said Bush will stall action on the recommendations at his peril. ''It is a campaign issue," Harman said. ''There is a big problem in the intelligence community, and now the public is waiting to see, who will stand up and fix it? This election could well be a referendum on whether we act to fix it or not."

Officials in both parties acknowledged that revamping the sprawling intelligence bureaucracy is a massive undertaking, one unlikely to be completed before the Nov. 2 elections. At the same time, Bush has maintained a consistent lead over Kerry on the issue of terrorism in most polls, suggesting he could benefit from any debate about homeland security in the days ahead.

And by seizing on the 9/11 report so readily, Kerry could risk appearing to politicize the issue, several Republicans said.

Yet with the persistent threat of another terrorist attack on US soil, combined with the growing willingness among some Democrats to point out the administration's failure to capture terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, lawmakers in both parties admitted they are in a race now to prove they are paying sufficient attention to homeland security.

Already, the overwhelming attention paid to the 9/11 report in the last three days has accelerated activity in Congress -- several members in both parties announced extraordinary plans over the last 72 hours to interrupt the August recess with immediate intelligence review hearings -- setting aside earlier suspicions that lawmakers would not move forward on the issue until after the election.

Bush, who initially resisted the creation of an independent 9/11 panel and later opposed several of its requests, warmly received the commission's report last Thursday with a ceremony in the Rose Garden. He heralded the findings as ''consistent with the strategy my administration is following to address these failings and to win the war on terror," and used his weekly radio address yesterday to recount the steps his administration has taken to combat terrorism, from creating the Department of Homeland Security to accelerating the development of vaccines for biological weapons.

''We have already put into action many of the steps now recommended by the commission, and we will carefully examine all the commission's ideas on how we can improve our ongoing efforts to protect America," Bush said in the radio address. ''The 9/11 Commission's recommendations will help guide our efforts as we work to protect the homeland."

Bush has asked White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to review the recommendations and report back as soon as possible. At the same time, Bush campaign advisers lambasted Kerry yesterday for seeking to use the 9/11 report for political purposes, saying his own record of voting to cut intelligence funding in the 1990s is at odds with his position now.

''Senator Kerry, throughout the campaign, has displayed a disturbing tendency to play politics with national security issues, yet he has yet to offer a coherent explanation for what his position is regarding Iraq, regarding the war on terror," Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said.

Last Thursday, as the long-awaited report was finally released in full, Bush advisers expressed relief the commission did not blame the Bush administration for failing to prevent the terrorist attacks.

But having dodged one political bullet, Bush advisers and congressional Republicans have begun scrambling to avoid another, as Democrats, members of the 9/11 commission, and families of the Sept. 11 victims ratchet up their calls for an intelligence overhaul. Several commission members said they hope that the heightened intensity of a campaign year will give their findings greater hope of success, by pressuring Bush to consider the proposals quickly and take action on them.

''The campaign provides an opportunity now for people who are running for elected office to declare themselves on this issue," Richard Ben Veniste, a Democratic member of the 9/11 commission, said.

The hope, Ben Veniste said, is ''that elected officials will be asked about them [the recommendations] and asked to say whether they are for them or against them, and if they are against them, they ought to say why. And people can use that information as part of the decision-making process about whom to vote for."

Democrats across the board made a similar case, speaking increasingly in unison about the potential political fallout from the report if Bush does not wholly embrace its main proposals.

''The Bush administration has been remarkably uncurious about what reforms are appropriate, about what lessons we have learned from Sept. 11," Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat, said in an interview. Graham said he hoped the report and the political pressure that follow it ''build a fire" under the administration to move on an intelligence review immediately.

''If that fire doesn't start when they are facing potential political defeat in the November elections, I don't know what else would force them to be engaged," Graham said.

John Podesta, the former Clinton official who now heads the Democratic think tank Americans for Progress, said it is the report's bi-partisan foundation that makes it politically treacherous for the Bush administration to ignore.

''Condi [Rice]'s suggestion that 'we'll take it under advisement' I think would be a major mistake for the president. If he thinks he can slow-walk this, it's going to be a real problem for him," Podesta said. ''If he thinks he can get away with saying, 'We've acted and everything is okay,' he's creating a very serious liability for himself."

Kerry himself has signaled his intent to campaign in lockstep with the 9/11 commissioners, who, while remaining bi-partisan in their approach, are going to make public appearances nationwide during August promoting their recommendations.

In a letter yesterday to the panel's co-chairs, former Governor Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, Kerry pointedly suggested that Bush should use his powers as president to implement the recommendations immediately.

''You said Thursday that 'we look back so that we can look forward,' " Kerry wrote in his letter, which was distributed by the campaign. ''I agree, and I share the Commission's view that America must act now, without delay. A number of the recommendations can be implemented directly by the President, while others will require legislation. I offer my full support for immediate action and will work with you to implement the recommendations."

After Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, endorsed legislation on the central recommendations last Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle asked the Senate Government Affairs Committee to take up the issue and draft legislation by Oct. 1 that would move forward in implementing the panel's recommendation.

Senators Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, and Lieberman held a press conference on Friday announcing plans for hearings starting in August. Shortly afterward, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, both initially reluctant to take up the panel report, said they would announce hearing schedules soon as well.

Anne E. Kornblut can be reached at akornblut@globe.com.