Return Of September 10th

It was bound to happen. The shock is wearing off, and the Democrats are all too eager to help us forget the danger we face from our murderous enemy; political power being more important to them than national security. We're all too willing to return to the life we knew on September 10th, even though there are Islamofascists plotting at this very second to rudely remind us of the reality of September 11th. The National Revew weighs in here.

We are once again living in September 10 America. The signs are all around us: Congress's acting to neuter interrogations of terrorist detainees; the Senate's filibustering the reauthorization of the most important piece of counterterrorism legislation since 9/11, the Patriot Act (Sen. John Sununu, who supports the filibuster, responds to our Friday editorial here); and now the controversy over National Security Agency intercepts of conversations between persons in the United States and suspected al Qaeda operatives overseas.

There apparently wasn't any easy way to spread responsibility here. President Bush appears to have faced a situation in which he had a choice between acting to protect America's national security or doing nothing. His choice strikes us as eminently sensible, even if it is inexplicable to those for whom it remains September 10.