The hasty reaction was the panic that led lawmakers to grab for the most sweeping policy option they could find. What looks like prudence and caution in normal times looks like half-measures and cowardice in the heat of an emergency. Those policy proposals would have continued gathering dust forever, had not 9/11 provided a political moment that transformed things that everyone had considered faults into something that looked like virtues.
When a bad event happens, whatever laws you have already, no matter how strict they are, are always seen to be not enough, because people buy into the idea that if they were enough then the bad thing would not have happened. Putting into place strict laws before an event does not stop over-reaction after it.
That's how you're supposed to do things, though. You want to write the policies before the event, when you can think things through slowly and carefully. There's nothing wrong with this part of what he has to say...only the other parts.
