Where's the urgency?

"We do not believe (the Bush or Clinton administrations) fully understood just how many people al-Qaida might kill and how soon it might do it. We also believe they did not take (al-Qaida) as seriously as it should be taken. It was not their top priority."

- The Sept. 11 commission

Is it a top priority yet?

You have to wonder, the way the Bush administration and the GOP-led Congress are reacting to the commission's report.

Although granting that the nation is safer than on the day the passenger-plane "missiles" killed 3,000 people in New York and Washington, the report makes clear that Americans are still much too vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and that another attack is virtually inevitable.

The panel makes 41 specific recommendations to reduce the peril - the most dramatic and controversial being to consolidate the nation's 15 intelligence-gathering services under one czar.

Given what's at stake - thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of American lives - you'd expect a security-conscious administration that has learned something from Sept. 11 would be all over the recommendations, dealing with those that don't require congressional action and urging Congress to promptly get on those that do.

Maybe not all the proposals should be implemented, but certainly they all should be discussed and considered - and the sooner the better. There's enough meat in the commission's report to justify a special session of Congress, if necessary.

But what do we get from the administration? A vague promise from President Bush to give "serious consideration" to the report. Serious consideration? Come on. Bush is supposed to be the nation's No. 1 terrorist fighter. And that's all he can come up with?

Where's the president's sense of urgency? His Democratic foe responded better than that. John Kerry at least called for some kind of "summit" to deal with the crisis. That may not be much, but it's better than what Bush offered.

Congress also was harshly criticized by the commission for its fundamentally ineffective oversight practices. Lawmakers were not forgotten in the 41 recommendations, either. Yet the reaction from the GOP leadership was even more sluggish than the White House. They recessed Congress until September, when they will return to wrap up the session as quickly as possible before adjourning for good to go home and campaign for re-election.

Both House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said there's "no rush" to do anything anyway, but they will hold some hearings and study the matter this fall. That's not exactly reassuring.

Al-Qaida has a to-do list. Congress has a to-study list. Never mind that Sept. 11 and al-Qaida have been endlessly studied by independent and congressional committees, as well as the British, for three years. Now it's time to act - to begin to steer our huge ship of state in the right direction.

Yes, because we are so large and layered with government bureaucracies, we cannot move as swiftly as our lean, light-footed and quick-witted enemies, but that only means we have no more time to waste.

One observer recently noted that ours may be the strongest, dumbest and most vulnerable nation in the world. Now, in this very unsafe world we've found ourselves in since 9-11, we can no longer afford to be dumb and vulnerable.