October 25, 2006

Mention Osama, Watch Dems Blow Gasket

For a party that is supposed to be poised for victory, Democrats are awfully touchy – at least when it comes to the issue that dare not speak its name.

You do remember terrorism, don’t you? Planes? Buildings collapsing? Radical Islamist clerics vowing death to America? At some point this was an issue of mild importance, but apparently we’re not supposed to talk about it anymore – especially if talking about it means mentioning a certain Osama bin Laden.

Witness the reaction of the Democratic National Committee to a new Republican ad that (gasp!) talks about bin Laden and even shows his face!

"Once again we see that the GOP will truly do and say anything regardless of whether or not it's true, they are so desperate to hold onto power,” fumed Karen Finney, director of communications for the DNC.

Oh dear! What did the Republicans say? Did they question someone’s patriotism? Did they call the Dems a bunch of wimps who would give the terrorists Florida in exchange for peace?

Actually, they said nothing about the Democrats at all. The ad merely presents a series of images – including bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri – set against their various quotes vowing to destroy America. The summation of the ad: These are the stakes.

That’s it. That’s it! The ad doesn’t even make the case that Republicans are a better choice than the Democrats to deal with the terrorists. (Do both parties know this is obvious?) It merely reminds the viewer that these guys are out there, and they’re what they’ve always been.

So the Democrats’ protest is that Republicans “will say anything regardless of whether it’s true or not.” OK. What’s not true here? Are these not the stakes? Is bin Laden not vowing to kill us?

Finney’s rant continues: “The truth is that under the incompetent GOP leadership, led by President Bush who moved our special forces out of Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and the Taliban is resurging in Afghanistan. And, under the GOP watch, our troops are pinned down in the middle of a civil war in Iraq, North Korea is testing nuclear weapons . . .” and on and on it goes in that vein.

Fine, Karen. If that’s your case, make it. But why blow a gasket merely because the Republicans show an ad that essentially says: “Don’t forget our enemy”? Indeed, if Bush’s performance in the war on terror had really been so incompetent, it seems the Dems would welcome the discussion. If bin Laden remaining on the loose were really such an indictment of Bush, it seems the Dems would love to see his face on TV. It seems they should offer to help pay for the ads.

But the Dems regard the mere mention of bin Laden as dirty fare. To this day, John Kerry blames bin Laden’s pre-election video for his 2004 loss to President Bush. And it’s not just bin Laden. When the GOP included images of 9/11 in election year ads, the Democrats had a collective apoplectic seizure, trotting out the angriest 9/11 families they could find to denounce the ads. Talking about the leading issue of our time is “politicizing” it, at least if you’re the party that still can’t convince people it can be trusted to deal with it effectively.

Polls supposedly show that Democrats have evened the score with voters on the issue of terrorism. But the Democrats’ own behavior shows that they remain insecure and defensive about it. Is it really difficult to figure out why?

This is the party that complains we are treating terrorism suspects too harshly. This is the party that dismisses the possibility that Saddam Hussein was ever a real threat, which does after all make them consistent, since they weren’t even willing to expel him from Kuwait in 1990.

This is the party that gets upset if the United States makes a move without the blessing of the United Nations. This is the party that wants to talk about North Korea’s nuclear tests, but not too much, because it was they who made the deal that provided Kim Jong-Il will much of the technology he needed to pull it off.

Finally, this is the party whose most self-absorbed former president (and that’s a spirited contest) won’t shut up, thus reminding everyone which party was running the show when America was thoroughly humiliated by the newly ascended mad mullahs in Iran.

If the polls show the voters are less inclined to distrust the Democrats on the issue of terrorism, the only possible reason is that no serious discussion of terrorism is taking place. So no wonder they consider it beyond the pale that those nasty Republicans would try to start one.

This is Column # DC56.  Request permission to publish here.