Jamie Gorelick's conflicts.
Richard Ben Veniste's smarm.
John Lehman's utter disrespect and cluelessness.
The Grand Opening of Richard Clarke's book tour.
Bob Kerrey attacking Condoleezza Rice.
Kerry and Lee Hamilton literally walking out on President Bush's testimony.

All punctuated by the events of the past two days.

Michele Catalano put it this way:

I honestly thought that this portion of the 9/11 hearings would lack the partisan bickering, finger pointing and childish behavior of the previous hearings.

Man, was I wrong.

By now, it's widely accepted that the 9/11 Commission has become a complete farce - the longest-running negative political ad of the 2004 campaign season.

No one will come out of these hearings and the commission's work looking good. No one, that is, with the possible exception of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - who pitched a fight over extending the panel's work beyond its original deadline.

To borrow a line from a national news magazine: How did it come to this?

Looking back, it's hard to have missed the fact that the grandstanding, dart-throwing, condescension and blame-assigning were craved by those who demanded this commission have as much time as it wanted. They needed these hearings. And they needed them to turn into a circus.

You can almost tell by how hard those who wanted these hearings to drag on lobbied for them. Let's take a stroll back in time to February, when Hastert had the foresight to see the mile that would be taken when the commission begged for its inch:

We admit we don't do causes very well on the program. And I don't do outrage well at all, yet, tonight, a cause and an outrage. The decision by the speaker of the House to deny the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attack on America a 60-day extension -- that's all, 60 days -- to complete its work is unconscionable and indefensible, which, no doubt, explains why neither the speaker, nor any member of the House leadership, nor none of their press secretaries would come on the program to talk about it, despite repeated requests.

-Aaron Brown, CNN Anchor.

And:

I really think the folks at the White House must be out of touch with how quickly their credibility with the public and the media is falling if they think that anyone will buy this stuff...

Now, after the president had said he would get behind extending the deadline for the 9/11 commission's report, they whip up this dingbat kabuki with Hastert to get them off the hook.

It's like they're losing touch.

- Josh Marshall.

And:

'I don't think this House of Representatives wants to take responsibility for our having less information than we need as to how this happened,'' Mr. Pelosi said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks.

If Mr. Hastert blocked the extension, she said, ''I can only assume he is doing the heavy lifting for the White House, which never wanted this commission in the first place.''

- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (via NY Times paid archives).

And:

Q Claire, can I ask about the 9/11 Commission? Speaker Hastert has said he does not support extending the Commission's time frame for doing their work. Will the President push him to change his mind and support an extension and let an extension go through Congress?

MS. BUCHAN: Well, the President has made his views clear. He supports an extension of the 9/11 Commission. That is the White House view. And we've worked very cooperatively with the 9/11 Commission to ensure that they have all the information necessary to do their job. So the President believes it's important work.

Q Will he press Congress to approve the extension as is necessary for the Commission to do what he says he supports them doing?

MS. BUCHAN: As I said, the President has made his views clear, and that's where it stands from our standpoint as the President --

Q So I'll take that as a "no"?

MS. BUCHAN: Well, the President supports an extension and we've stated that and continue to support it.

Q But when something is really important to him, he often presses Congress over and over and over in speeches and through his staff and public remarks to do what he wants them to do. Will he do that on this issue?

MS. BUCHAN: I've indicated the President's view and he has made that clear. The President's view is that we support an extension.

Q There are reports that Speaker Hastert had rejected a personal plea from Andy Card to extend the deadline. Is that your understanding of it, as well, that Card had requested personally to Hastert to extend the deadline?

MS. BUCHAN: I don't have specifics on conversations they've had. But as I said, our view, the White House view, is to support an extension and that's where that stands.

- Unidentified reporter in press gaggle with White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

And:

Is this yet another panicky miscalculation from the same Republican establishment that seemed almost invincible only a year ago? Ever since the carrier landing backfired on them they just can't seem to find their footing.

- Kevin Drum.

Well, the commission got its extra time. All that lobbying sure paid off.