Late in last night's Bush press conference, in responding to Ann Compton's question about his plans for reforming our intelligence agencies, Bush said this:
"What I'm saying is let the discussions begin. And I won't prejudge the conclusion. As the president, I will encourage and foster these kinds of discussions, because one of the jobs of the president is to leave behind a legacy that will enable other presidents to better deal with the threat that we face. We are in a long war. The war on terror is not going to end immediately."
I guess this can go onto Bush's very short list of "lessons learned", because he sure didn't do much with the Clinton legacy on counterterrorism. At the minimum, the Bush administration ignored urgent warnings from the Clinton administration and essentially circle-filed the recommendations from the three-year Hart-Rudman effort.
