Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Edition)

The word from inside the Post print newsroom in Washington DC is that Michael Fletcher, staff writer of the Washington Post, is really dumb--dumb enough not to have realized when he claimed that Bush had "left aside partisan rancor" that he had done so by not inviting any of the elected Democratic representatives of New York to his ceremony.

Bush Honors 9/11 Anniversary: Bush Honors 9/11 Anniversary: Memorial Events Echo Nonpartisan Tone of Five Years Ago: By Michael A. Fletcher: Washington Post Staff Writer: Monday, September 11, 2006; A06: NEW YORK, Sept. 10 -- Beginning two days of solemn ceremonies to mark the fifth anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the nation's history, President Bush on Sunday laid two wreaths at Ground Zero before attending a memorial service in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, victims.

Bush's visit here for the moment left aside the partisan rancor that long ago supplanted the sense of unity and shared purpose emerging immediately after the attacks, in which hijackers crashed four planes, killing about 3,000 people.

With the assistance of first lady Laura Bush, the president placed a floral wreath in a reflecting pool in the center of the footprint of what was once the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Then, escorted by a Marine officer, the Bushes walked to the site of the South Tower, where they placed another wreath in an identical pool before returning to their car to the strains of bagpipes playing patriotic music.

Accompanied by Gov. George E. Pataki (R), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) and former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R)...