"In the past, Condi Rice has implored the networks not to broadcast the tapes outright, fearing he might be activating sleeper cells in code.

But this time the administration flacked the tape. And Fox, the official Bush news agency, rushed the entire tape onto the air.

So the Bushies no longer care if Osama sends a coded message to his thugs as long he stays on message for the White House?

"As threatening as these provisions are to the health of the forests, they are no less distasteful for their cavalier disregard for due process. In each case they either summarily overrule existing law or, even more ominously, seek to narrow or suspend rights of appeal and judicial review that Americans have long enjoyed under established environmental law.

Democrats and Republican moderates in the House led by Sherwood Boehlert of New York are organizing a counterattack. We wish them well. Eight years ago this same group helped Bill Clinton turn back a similar onslaught engineered by Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America crowd. Their timely intervention is equally important now."

"Yes, a year is a long time, and a lot can happen between now and New Hampshire 2004. But we've had two years of George Bush, and three years ought to be enough time to get an economic policy together. Bush's is MIA. Unless there's a major turnaround in the next six to nine months, the Democrats ought to be able to make something of that. If they can't, they don't deserve to govern."