Dissent Is Patriotic; Dissembling Is Not

The Democrats are in an uproar over the (very belated) efforts of the Bush Administration to answer the false and scurrilous charges lobbed by the media and leading Democrats against the war--specifically regarding what we knew before we went to war. The President has (finally) clearly laid out the facts that the Democrats were singing off the same page in the hymnal--all the way back to the Clinton Administration--regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Now that the war has proven more difficult than expected (which is a legitimate criticism of Bush, Rumsfeld, et al) the Dems want to take it all back and pretend like it never happened.

They are especially outraged (shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment, etc.) that Bush is "trying to shut off criticism of the war." Of course that's specifically what the President is not doing. He exempted honest critics, instead attacking those who are attempting to rewrite history, pretending they didn't know and say and write what they knew and said and wrote. Most of the Democrats in the Senate voted to authorize the Iraq War. And they explained, in no uncertain terms why Hussein was a threat.

It is not unpatriotic to oppose a war...stupid perhaps, but not unpatriotic. I respect Lincoln Chafee's consistency, though not his intellect. He was against the war before, and he's against it now. But Kerry, Edwards, Reid, Rockefeller and host of other Senators who denounced Hussein then are now claiming they were "mislead" and "manipulated." How despicable. Weathervanes make poor leaders. In hopes of short term political gain, these men (and women) are willing to risk the long term safety and security of our country. They are lying through their teeth, and refusing to accept responsibility for what they did. That is anything but patriotic. They should be ashamed...but of course they are not. Therefore it is up to those of us who love our country and are paying attention to see to it that they are punished at the ballot box.

If we allow the dissembling Democrats to win with this abominable tactic, we have placed our lives and our country in grave danger. The threat from our enemies is real, and sticking our heads in the sand and pretending it's all made up in an effort to manipulate us into "war for oil" only gives them more time to plan and execute attacks against us. When a once great political party is taken over by lying, unprincipled hacks, they deserve to be utterly rejected by the populace.