Lawmakers chide walkout on Bush

Republican lawmakers said yesterday that by walking out of their meeting Thursday with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney early, some members of the September 11 commission did more damage to the panel’s credibility.

“It’s amazing to me that after the focus that the commission has put on that meeting, the insistence that every commissioner be allowed to attend, and that the president give whatever time the commission thought was necessary, that commissioners wouldn’t stay,” said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican.

The 10-member commission, which is investigating intelligence failures leading up to the terrorist attacks, had requested an in-person discussion with Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. The White House complied by providing both men together for 3 hours and 15 minutes on Thursday.

But commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton and member Bob Kerrey both left about 40 minutes before the meeting ended, causing a “buzz” at the Capitol, particularly among those who believe the commission is too partisan and its members have been grandstanding.

“When you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get information from the president and vice president of the United States, to leave early just begs the question of how serious they’re taking this,” said Don Stewart, spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican.

Mr. Hamilton is president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which was hosting Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who was making his only major policy speech in Washington at noon. Mr. Kerrey, the president of New School University, had a meeting scheduled with Sen. Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Republican, to discuss an appropriation item.

“It’s unusual to leave a meeting with the president early,” Mr. Hamilton said in an interview yesterday, but added, “the circumstances I think I’ve described in some detail — if people understood that, I don’t think they’d be critical.”

Other commission members agreed, saying they were pleasantly surprised the meeting with the president went as long as it did.

“I don’t think it was awkward. They apologized. They had long-established prior commitments they couldn’t get out of,” said John F. Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy. “It was absolutely not disrespect.”

Mr. Blunt said he didn’t know the specific reasons why both men had to leave, but he said, “It’s possible to believe one of them was unavoidable, but that two of the commissioners had something more important” than to finish their exchange with the president “hurts the credibility of the commission.”

Mr. Stewart said: “To say that Kerrey had to leave to come over here for a meeting is curious at best.”

Mr. Hamilton said his engagement with Mr. Martin for April 29 was set a year ago, even before Mr. Martin became prime minister.

“We had set the White House interview at the president’s request on April 28. This was several weeks ago, and there was no conflict. And then the White House called and said the president would prefer to do it on the 29th. I said that’s fine, let’s do it in the morning, and I notified them at that time I had to leave at quarter to 12,” Mr. Hamilton said, adding that both the president and vice president knew, and “that was fine” with them.

Mr. Kerrey said he and the president “had a very cordial exchange,” chatting about Mr. Bush’s recent chance to run with an injured soldier who has a new prosthetic leg.

“If I get any indication that the president was offended by me running up to the Hill at the tail end of a meeting, I would certainly apologize,” Mr. Kerrey said. “This is a perception people have on the outside, especially those who don’t like my political views.”

He also said he didn’t want “to get drawn into partisan fighting” because right now the commission can produce a bipartisan report.

“The only thing that worries me is if people like myself take the bait from extremely partisan Republicans who are trying to taunt me into becoming a partisan Democrat,” he said. “I’m capable of doing it, but I’m trying to resist.”