Sixth graders take Gonzales to task.

It was the big day. Twenty-three sixth-graders from Northeast Washington were getting to go inside one of the most top-secret rooms in the world: the FBI command center. A lair deep within FBI headquarters downtown. The inner sanctum where all spy brains converge to make split-second decisions to protect American citizens and fight evil during national crises.

Not only that, but the students were also about to meet The Big Guys: the director of the FBI and the attorney general of the United States. And they were going to see whether they could pass muster on the agent fitness test.

I bet Roberto Gonzales felt confident the kids would just ask him if he had a batphone to call the President in case of trouble or something. He would have been wrong.

A 12-year-old at the other end of the table had a question. "What do you think about the war?" he asked.

Gonzales put down his hamburger. "One thing you have to remember is that sometimes people have to die so we can all live in freedom. That's always been the case."

"I think they should end the war," Maurice said.

"You know what, I think everybody wants the war to end as soon as possible," Gonzales said. "I really do. Nobody wants young American soldiers to die, including the president."

"If the president made us go to war with Iraq, why doesn't he go over there and fight the war?" Christian May asked.

I think we should send these kids to work in the White House Press room as soon as possible. I would usually suggest that we wait until they were older but we desperately need them right now!

I just love kids.