I've had this ongoing theory that if Al Gore had been president during 9/11, the Republicans would've tried to impeach him for it. Instead, Bush was president and the entire nation rallied around him in the wake of the largest terrorist attack on American soil. Incidentally, the next day, Bush referred to 9/11 as "acts of terror." Not making that up.
If the Bush administration had taken reports of Bin Laden's intentions more seriously, perhaps the 9/11 attacks could've been prevented. But they weren't. And no one played politics with the attack -- at least until Bush himself repeatedly used the attacks to gin up support for Iraq and when his team used 9/11 imagery in a 2004 campaign ad.
But, conversely, when terrorists hit the consulate in Benghazi, Romney and the Republicans couldn't even exercise the decency or discipline to wait until the disaster was over before they politicized it by attacking the president. Imagine if the Democrats had reacted the same way during 9/11. They would've been tarred and feathered and driven out of Washington on a rail. Yet the Republicans do it with impunity.
This says a lot about how Republicans too often comport themselves in the wake of a disaster -- these self-proclaimed "patriots" are merely fair-weather patriots, only willing to lend their unified support when the president is from their own party. Even though 3,000 Americans were killed in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia on Bush's watch, I wouldn't be shocked if the Republicans, given the chance, tried to impeach Obama for the Benghazi attack. Utterly disgraceful.