So what *were* Bush's top priorities?

[underpants]

Well we know what one of them WASN'T at least when they came into office.

The commission cited a May 10 Justice Department document setting priorities for 2001. The top priorities cited were reducing gun violence and combating drug trafficking. There was no mention of counterterrorism.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/04/15/2003136737

Counterterrorism was nowhere to be seen on Ashcroft's list of top priorities for the Justice Department. Ashcroft's May 2001 "budget goals memo" outlined the Attorney General's top seven priorities. Counterterrorism did not appear anywhere on the list. After 9/11, Ashcroft released a revised strategic goals memo in November 2001 that inserted a new priority at the top of the list – "Protect America Against the Threat of Terrorism."
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/04/b45491.html

The Gorelick memo was a way for Ashcroft to turn the harsh spotlight on someone other than himself -- which he needed to do since his responses to the criticisms leveled by Pickard and Watson were decidedly unpersuasive. Ashcroft initially said that the May 2001 memo that didn't list counterterrorism as one of DOJ's top priorities -- the memo that almost made Watson fall out of his chair -- was based on a strategic plan issued by his predecessor, Janet Reno. But he also conceded that Reno's strategic plan did indeed include mentions of terrorism. As for his rejection in the summer of 2001 of Pickard's request for $58 billion more in counterterrorism money for the FBI, Ashcroft tried to fudge matters by noting that the FBI was working under a Clinton administration budget when the attacks occurred and that the first Bush budget for the FBI, which was for fiscal year 2002, substantially increased counterterrorism spending. But of course it did; that budget was crafted after the 9/11 attacks. Finally, Ashcroft just denied that he ever told Pickard he didn't want any more briefings on terrorism issues. That left Ashcroft in a he-said/he-said dispute with a career FBI agent whose integrity -- unlike the attorney general's -- has never before been questioned.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/opinion/main612043.shtml

These numbers fit with the department's apparent lack of focus on terrorism. According to the 9/11 Commission's staff report, "The FBI's new counterterrorism strategy was not a focus of the Justice Department in 2001." To counter this assertion, Ashcroft told the Commission that he proposed increasing counterterrorism funding by $1.175 billion during 2002 and 2003, compared to a $683 million proposed increase for drug and gun prosecutions. But those numbers were drawn up after 9/11. Before 9/11 was a very different story. On May 9, 2001, Ashcroft testified at a hearing on U.S. efforts to combat terrorism that the Justice Department had no higher priority than to protect citizens from terrorist attacks. One day later, the DOJ issued guidelines for developing its fiscal year 2003 budget. The memo made the reduction of drug trafficking a top priority, but did not mention terrorism. This was the now-infamous memo that the FBI's counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, told the 9/11 Commission nearly made him fall out of his chair.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=strohm042804

On Operation Ignore Day 208, Ashcroft sent his Justice Department budget request to Bush. It included spending increases in sixty-eight different programs. Out of these sixty-eight programs, less than half dealt with terrorism. Way less than half. In fact, none of them dealt with terrorism. Ashcroft passed around a memo listing his seven top priorities. Again, terrorism didn't make the list.
http://www.avatara.com/operationignore0.html