Desperation time: this will be the third consecutive election in which the Republicans wrap themselves in 9-11. Expect the worst.(ELECTION 2006 SPECIAL)

ON THE RECENT FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE September 11 attacks, President Bush visited all three sites of the mayhem--the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the courageous passengers took down United Flight 93; the Pentagon, long since rebuilt; and Manhattan's ground zero, earth onto which New York's bickering and feeble Republican politicians have managed in half a decade to lay not a stone.

Any president might have taken this somber whistle-stop tour. But long experience in observing this administration's uses of the attacks makes Bush's excursion different--a ceremony ...

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