United We Don't Stand

Greg Sargent catches an increasingly disturbing trend amongst Republicans. If there is a terrorist attack, "there is an opportunity."

Sargent:

Whit Ayres is a prominent Republican pollster who has co-founded something called "Resurgent Republic," which bills itself as a message testing outfit for GOP lawmakers -- part of an effort by Republicans to build an infrastructure to retake power in Washington.

So it was interesting to see how Ayres characterized the politics of the Times Square bomb scare in an interview with Karen Tumulty and Paul Kane:

Two days after the dramatic arrest of Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad, Republicans were engaged in a full-bore effort to rewrite the good-news narrative.

Yes, we have been lucky," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) said Thursday, "but luck is not an effective strategy for fighting terrorism."

Whatever the merits of their argument -- and, where terrorism is concerned, it is prudent to keep cockiness at bay -- there is a political imperative at work as well.

"Democrats are always suspect on national security, and anything that makes them look weak on national security creates an opportunity for Republicans," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster.

Such candor! I can remember when it would have been controversial to suggest that a terror scare that could have killed many Americans presents one party with a political "opportunity."

To be fair, neither Boehner nor any other GOPers raising questions about the handling of the terror scare have gone anywhere near claming it represents good politics for Republicans, even if Boehner did say the suspect's capture was "lucky." But still, Aryes' assertion deserves some attention.

Ahem, I think the word is tyranny. That's the word the Republicans and Right used during the Bush era. If only the Democratic Party had a Rudy Giuliani out on the teevee blathering nonsensical without fact check. If only. Then maybe we could focus on combating terrorism instead of politically gaming our national security at every whim. If only.


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