By Karen DeYoung and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers

CRAWFORD, Tex., Nov. 15 -- As they prepared to face questions from a gymnasium full of students at Crawford High School this morning, President Bush proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that they adopt a joint strategy for responses: "We'll just limit ourselves to generalities."

That seemed to sum up the three-day summit that ended here today. A meeting that was marked by an extraordinary display of camaraderie between "George" and "Vladimir," it did little to institutionalize their good will into anything more than agreement to keep talking about a range of outstanding issues.

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By E. J. Dionne Jr.

The complacency that greeted the media recount of last year's presidential vote in Florida is disturbing, but not surprising.

It's not surprising because the election was a long time ago, because we're in the middle of a war and because well over 90 percent of Americans -- including Al Gore, Joe Lieberman and this less-than-reconciled writer -- wish President Bush well in leading the struggle against terrorism. In the choice between Bush and bin Laden, no recount would be required.

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By MARTIN PLISSNER

WASHINGTON -- Now that a group of major news organizations has concluded that it was not the Supreme Court that imposed President Bush upon the nation, it's important to note that the voters didn't decide it that way, either. It does not take eight months of research with the University of Chicago to know that the current leader of the free (or at least the antiterrorist) world got half a million fewer votes last year than his opponent.

Let it be stipulated at the outset that under the law of the land George W. Bush is the country's duly elected head of state. And maybe, given the alternative and the nature of the times, that is just as well. Still, do we really need more elections, in years to come, in which people are still arguing a year later about whether the president's margin in a single state was 537 votes (the official result in Florida) or 225 — when the Federal Election Commission says he trailed nationally by 537,179?

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Editorial/Op-Ed

President Bush's plan to use secret military tribunals to try terrorists is a dangerous idea, made even worse by the fact that it is so superficially attractive. In his effort to defend America from terrorists, Mr. Bush is eroding the very values and principles he seeks to protect, including the rule of law.

The administration's action is the latest in a troubling series of attempts since Sept. 11 to do an end run around the Constitution. It comes on the heels of an announcement that the Justice Department intends to wiretap conversations between some prisoners and their lawyers. The administration also continues to hold hundreds of detainees without revealing their identities, the charges being brought against them or even the reasons for such secrecy.

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By Richard Cohen

Attorney General John Ashcroft does not read newspapers or watch TV news. Instead, he's briefed by aides. It's possible, then, that Ashcroft does not know that many people don't think of him anymore as the comforting head of the Justice Department but instead as the scariest man in government. I see him as the director of the Office of Homeland Insecurity.

Ever since Sept. 11, Ashcroft has functioned as the real-life equivalent of the prefect of police in "Casablanca" -- rounding up "the usual suspects" and, like him, doing so without the usual legal safeguards. Their exact number is not known nor are their names. They exist in an American gulag -- a term I use with purposeful exaggeration. This is serious stuff.

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