Speaker Hastert's stonewall

Washington Post: President Bush rightly reversed himself this month and agreed to extend the absurd May deadline that imperils the work of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The panel known as the 9/11 commission, however, still faces a roadblock: House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. Hastert opposes the two-month extension without which the commission says it cannot finish its report -- and he says he will not bring it up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
The speaker barely even pretends to have a reason for his obstructionism other than protecting Republican political interests. His spokesman, John Feehery, says that it's important to hear the commission's recommendations as quickly as possible. But he quickly comes to the real point: Hastert wants the commission's report over and done with before the general election starts in earnest.
Political assessment
Two of the Democratic commissioners, Richard Ben-Veniste and former congressman Timothy J. Roemer, are "known to have sharp political elbows," Feehery warns. The speaker does not want their work to "stretch into the political season." Any extension will simply "be used by the partisans on the committee to leak things."
But there's no evidence of any impropriety as the bipartisan commission does its important work. The chairman and vice chairman of the group, former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean (R) and former Indiana congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D), are both relatively nonpartisan figures, and they agree that they cannot finish the job Congress assigned without extra time.
In blocking any extension, Hastert is putting party interests ahead of an important national security objective: getting a serious, independent look at what went wrong in the years before the attacks and what should be done now. Having said that he supports extra time for the commission, Bush must insist on it now.