California Conservative

That’s the central question being asked in this Washington Times article. Let’s see which issues will cause voters turn out in the greatest force.

Don Stewart, spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, calls the issues “briar-patch politics,” as in Br’er Rabbit’s cunning plea to Br’er Fox: “Please don’t throw me in the briar patch.” “If they want to attack us for being too tough on terrorists and strong on border security, then let them,” he said. “We’ll see ‘em on November 7th.”

Compare that bravado with the Democrats’ statements on the Hamdan ruling:

After last week’s Hamdan v. Rumsfeld verdict, in which the Supreme Court ruled that President Bush had overstepped his constitutional powers by trying enemy combatants by military tribunals, instead of traditional civilian courts, Democrats were elated.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision reaffirms the American ideal that all are entitled to the basic guarantees of our justice system,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced in a prepared statement. “This is a triumph for the rule of law…We cannot allow the values on which our country was founded to become a casualty in the war on terrorism.”

Oddly enough, Ms. Pelosi wasn’t to be found when Jihad John Murtha was declaring that the Marines who fought in Haditha were “cold-blooded murderers.” Is it because Ms. Pelosi only thinks that due process rights, which she characterizes as “among our most cherished liberties”, is only cherished when she thinks there’s political points to be made?

If that’s Ms. Pelosi’s belief, then there isn’t reason for the Democrats’ elation. The American people will see that for the cheap rhetoric that it is. They’ll recognize it for ringing hollow.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner’s office immediately issued a press release of its own, containing Mrs. Pelosi’s statement in full…”There is a clear choice between Capitol Hill Democrats who celebrate offering special privileges to violent terrorists, and Republicans who want the president to have the necessary tools to prosecute and achieve victory in the global war on terror.”

Expect to see more of this type of communication when the campaign swings into full force this fall. Also expect Democrats to howl about the ‘Republicans’ mean-spirited attacks’ on Democrats, which means that they’re using the Democrats’ own words against themselves.

On the news last week that USA Today could not verify that all the telephone companies it reported had turned over phone records to the government, liberals were quick to point to the larger principle behind their argument, that it still amounted to the federal government spying on the business dealings of innocent Americans. Undeterred, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican, told USA Today, “It would probably be better [for the government] to have records of every phone company.”
It’s a view that many congressional Republicans hold, but Christy Setzer, communications director for the Democrat group Senate Majority Project, said it was the “outrageous GOP Senate quote of the day” for suggesting the that surveillance program doesn’t go far enough. “On the birthday of our nation, it would be nice if Senator Chambliss showed some respect for our 219-year-old Constitution,” she said. “Not many Americans like the idea of government trolling through their phone records, nor would they think what we really need is to expand government intrusion.”

Get Ms. Setzer a bigger megaphone to trumpet the Democrats’ unseriousness in tracking down and fighting terrorists. It’d be nice for her to learn that looking at phone records & figuring out calling patterns isn’t a violation of any Constitutional principle. It isn’t until they detect a terrorist’s calling habits that they get a warrant to tap that phone, making it perfectly legal.

Ms. Setzer’s statement might gain traction if the complaint was about actual abuses rather than theoretical possibilities. As long as people don’t see actual abuses, they won’t get alarmed by the program.

Technorati Tags: Midterm Elections, Pelosi, Boehner, Hamdan, NSA

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 at 11:32 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Elections, Pelosi, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.