LITTLE CHANGE IN A SYSTEM THAT FAILED: That’s the New York Times’ assessment of the FBI, CIA and other counterterror bureaucracies over the past year. It seems right to me.

I’ve said it before, but I don’t understand why the Democrats haven’t made an issue of this, since by attacking this issue they’d (1) be providing a needed critique; and (2) be saying something that everyone knows is true. I can only conclude that attacking bureaucracies is just too alien to their nature, or too offensive to key constituencies.

As Ken Layne points out:

An interesting hobby is watching where the intelligent dissent is coming from, because it’s mostly coming from the right side of the spectrum. While the far left stays on the steady path it marked on … oh, about Sept. 12, the neo-conservatives and moderates and even old-school GOP mouthpieces have carried on detailed inquiry into the stuff we’re all worried about. Are planes any safer? What the hell was that “TIPS” nonsense? We’re still handing out visas through Saudi travel agencies? That goddamned Saudi prince is lounging at the president’s house and we’re supposed to buy this “axis of evil” gibberish? Can you people get your story straight about Atta’s trip to Prague?

This seems mostly right. But it’s also kind of odd.

UPDATE: Here are my thoughts on the issue from a Homeland Security perspective.