Fuzzy on the details

Sometimes, you just have to wonder about these guys. To his credit, San Diego-area Republican Congressman Darrell Issa has begun retreating from comments he made yesterday at a meeting of two House committees complaining about additional requests for compensation for victims of the Sept. 11 attack on New York. But he didn't apologize for his seeming lack of understanding of an event that sent shockwaves across the country. In a statement posted on his Web site today, the congressman's office said the comments had been misunderstood. "Contrary to what some have stated, Rep. Issa did not state that the 9/11 attacks were not an attack on America itself; he did not object to the billions in federal aid that has already been sent to New York City (including help for injured and sick responders) that he has previously and consistently supported; and he never minimized the horrible tragedy that took place on September 11, 2001," the statement said. That would be good, if it were true. But Issa also must have forgotten that what he said in the hearing would be recorded. Issa asked "why the firefighters who went there and everyone in the city of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus, quite frankly, this being primarily a state consideration." Issa described the attack on the World Trade Center, in which two fuel-laden airplanes were crashed into the twin towers, eventually destroying them and thousands of people who worked there, as "a fire that had no dirty bomb in it" and "had no chemical munitions in it. It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue of the material used to build this building." That sure sounded like he was minimizing the attacks. Does he also think the plane that hit the Pentagon was merely a crash, and not a terrorist attack?