The re-election campaign might be tarnished if certain info is revealed, so hide the data behind classification (and re-classification). That, at least, is the appearance given by this dustup between the Executive and Legislative branches. The dispute centers around a “more-than-800-page secret report prepared by a joint congressional inquiry detailing the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the attacks” of September 11.

The report names names, gives dates and provides a body of new information about the handling of many other crucial intelligence briefings—including one in early August 2001 given to national-security adviser Rice that discussed Al Qaeda operations within the United States and the possibility that the group’s members might seek to hijack airplanes. The administration “working group” is still refusing to declassify information about the briefings, sources said, and has even expressed regret that some of the material was ever provided to congressional investigators in the first place.

This has angered legislators on both sides of the aisle, and they’re now demanding action. Some of the material has already been released to the public but is now deemed too “sensitive,” which is about as asinine as anything Richard Nixon and CREEP ever thought up.