Back and forth yesterday with a reader who complained that right-wingers do NOT want another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and to suggest otherwise is unconscionable.
Oh really?
National Review’s Jim Geraghaty spent all day yesterday fantasizing about all the scary things that could happen if we have Al-Qaeda Terrorists in our communities (near nuclear facilities and airports!). Former Bush aide and chief speechwriter Marc Thiessen warned yesterday in The Washington Post that if there is a Terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Americans will blame Obama because he stopped torturing and closed Guantanamo, and Democrats will be “unelectable for a generation.” Today, at National Review, Thiessen, citing yesterday’s Executive Orders, declared Obama “to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office.” And yesterday, of course, The Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt echoed the standard claim that our regular federal courts were inadequate to try dangerous Terrorists.
For right-wingers to be “right” they have to be proven right. And on this issue, for them to be proven right - there has to be a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
For if there is no terrorist attack on U.S. soil - then Obama is right and they are wrong. Then it is they who are “unelectable for a generation.”
But let’s take this an extra step. If there is an attack on U.S. soil - as there is almost certain to be, at some point in the future, a year down the road or 10 - you know as well as I do that right-wingers will immediately point the finger. As if 9/11 hadn’t happened on Bush’s watch. But the question, if and when this occurs, is: Who is responsible. If it’s Al Qaeda, let out of Gitmo - maybe the wingers will then have a point.
If it’s a terrorist who learned his trade during our splendid little war in Iraq, as part of an insurgency that didn’t exist until we invaded - then they who shriek loudest now may bear the overwhelming responsibility.
Ah, but I forgot. The “personal responsibility” crowd takes responsibility for nothing, ever.
Honestly, the hysteria from these people, on day one, is simply astounding. A year from now - they’ll all be catatonic. I need to keep the VCR running in order to preserve all the unhinged moments - I just don’t think I have enough tape.
