By now you've likely heard about Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial. As folks read it they are reporting on it's disclosures and revelations. This is one of the most agregious yet:

As a Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, I [blog poster Peter Rundlit] became very familiar with both the PDB [presidential daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack the U.S.] and the Phoenix Memo, as well as the tragic consequences of the failure to detect and stop the plot. A mixture of shock, anger, and sadness overcame me when I read about revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book about a special surprise visit that George Tenet and his counterterrorism chief Cofer Black made to Condi Rice, also on July 10, 2001:

They went over top-secret intelligence pointing to an impending attack and “sounded the loudest warning” to the White House of a likely attack on the U.S. by Bin Laden.

Woodward writes that Rice was polite, but, “They felt the brushoff.”

If true, it is shocking that the administration failed to heed such an overwhelming alert from the two officials in the best position to know. Many, many questions need to be asked and answered about this revelation — questions that the 9/11 Commission would have asked, had the Commission been told about this significant meeting. Suspiciously, the Commissioners and the staff investigating the administration’s actions prior to 9/11 were never informed of the meeting. As Commissioner Jamie Gorelick pointed out, “We didn’t know about the meeting itself. I can assure you it would have been in our report if we had known to ask about it.”

Several thoughts come to mind. First, this is news, but hardly surprising given the total incompetence of Rice. You can very easily prove that Bill Clinton was focused on terrorism as a real and imminent problem. How? Because Bush vowed to never do anything like Clinton, thus their how-hum attitude towards the numerous warnings of an attack by al Qaeda. And cover up the fact of the meeting after 911? That's Republican politics 101.

The other thought is about Bob Woodward. There is much speculation about the tone, content and timing of the release of the book. It's almost as if Bob Woodward is apologizing for having been such a Bush lapdog previously. Given that the time frame covered in the most recent book is similar to past books, yet the conclusions and portrayals are decidedly less flattering, it would appear to be a reasonable conclusion. There are certainly plenty of pundits, journalists, authors and government officials who need a "come to Jesus" moment about having been duped into the riding the "kill the terraists bandwagon" and Woodward (Booby as Atrios has labeled him) is near the top of the list. Unfortunately for Bob Woodward and Andrew Sullivan, and virtually everyone at The New Republic, people have long memories and internet posts are preserved imperpetuity.