From the Wall Street Journal:

Dean has also been trafficking in crackpot conspiracy theories. On yesterday's "Diane Rehm Show" on WAMU radio (link in RealAudio format, exchange begins at 42:39), the erstwhile Vermont governor had this to say:

Caller: Once we get you in the White House, would you please make sure that there is a thorough investigation of 9/11, and not stonewall it?

Dean: Yes. There is a report, which the president is suppressing evidence for, which is a thorough investigation of 9/11.

Rehm: Why do you think he's suppressing that report?

Dean: I don't know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I've heard so far--which is nothing more than a theory, it can't be proved--is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is? But the trouble is, by suppressing that kind of information, you lead to those kinds of theories, whether they have any truth to them or not. And eventually they get repeated as fact. So I think the president is taking a great risk by suppressing the key information that should go to the Kean commission.

Now, it's true that the Bush administration sought to withhold some classified documents from the Kean commission, which is investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. Such disputes are nothing unusual; both the Nixon and Clinton administrations sought (unsuccessfully) to use executive privilege to withhold information from prosecutors investigating possible presidential crimes. In this case, there are no serious allegations of wrongdoing, and the information in question is sensitive for reasons of national security, not just protecting the office of the president.

Besides, as the Daily Record of Parsippany, N.J., noted last month, the White House and the commission reached a compromise that will allow some access to such information. Dean is out of bounds to cite this "suppression" as an excuse to raise nutty conspiracy theories. If a Republican candidate had said of Bill Clinton, "The Clintons may have murdered Vince Foster--but it's only a theory," he would have been pilloried in the media, and rightly so. Will Dean get the same treatment?