[kellynla]

"The point is not whether the American people have grown skeptical of the rationale for going to war in Iraq or the consequences of that war. By almost any measure of reliable polling data, a majority of them clearly has.

The political issue is whether Democrats can capitalize on that skepticism without corroborating the perception of weakness. Put another way, can they avoid pandering to the hard-left interests that have repeatedly spelled electoral disaster for them since 1968 and instead address the concerns of average Americans? Can they prove that they see the bear and have a strategy for victory?

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean already provided an answer when he said, "The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong."

And it came from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid when he gloated to party activists, "We killed the Patriot Act."

Reid might have attenuated his partisan boast to say, "We forced the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress to consider greater protections for civil liberties in the Patriot Act." He might even have said, "We are working to fix a flawed yet essential Patriot Act."

Instead, Reid just killed it and tossed out the red meat.

As with Iraq, the point here is not whether a large number of Americans from a broad political spectrum are concerned about the erosion or potential erosion of civil liberties in the war on terror. They are.

The unavoidable political issue is that an even larger number of Americans has a greater concern that, given the opportunity, terrorists will kill more of their countrymen. And they believe that the Patriot Act, flaws and all, has been instrumental in preventing a repeat of Sept. 11, 2001, on American soil. As a political slogan, "We killed the Patriot Act" has all the electoral potential of "I am not a crook."

There is indeed a bear in the woods ... and in the desert and in the mountains and even, perhaps, in our own cities. And saying so doesn't compel Americans to surrender their right to dissent against their government or cede any other constitutional rights

To pretend it is not there, however, and to sublimate national security to score some cheap partisan points isn't just bad politics, it's also bad policy."

[kellynla]

ya might want to delete the time from the title.

[o_zarkman44]

I see a campaign commercial by someone running against Harry Reid using that quote "We killed the Patriot Act", while showing the collapse of the WTC, and Bin Laden smiling. Oh and also include a clip of illegal immigrants running across the border with backpack nukes.

There has been 4 years that congress has had the opportunity to amend the few flawed portions of the Patriot Act without killing the entire measure as Reid gloats.

Was it coincidence or opportunistic that the NSA investigation and leak was launched just days before the key vote to renew the Patriot Act, and did those charges help bring down the vote?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

It played on the broader fear in the post-Vietnam era that the Democratic Party had gone soft on security and could not be entrusted with the nation's defense.

Post-Vietnam my backside, the DemonRats have been pro-enemy since at least the 1940s. They were embracing every spy and communist thug then. "McCarthyism" is the ulitimate dirty word, God forbid you should root out and stop the enemies of your country.

[ricks_place]

Does this explain the myopic refusal to allow bear hunts in many parts of the country?

[Right_in_Virginia]

A handful of Democrats — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joseph Lieberman, for instance — seem to be cognizant of this history and the propensity for their party to be perceived as being weak on national security.

Where, exactly, was Mrs. Clinton on the issue of national security during the co-presidency we endured from 1992-2000?

[yoe]

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean already provided an answer when he said, "The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong."

And it came from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid when he gloated to party activists, "We killed the Patriot Act."

Aren't they just brilliant - two of the Democrat leaders and they act like this.....utterly unbelievable. Harry Reid the yayayaya gottcha school yard bully and Dean, simply a dazzling useful idiot.

If ever a nation needed to rid it’s self of deplorable politicians, it can start with these two – word on the street is that Nancy Pelosi already has her pink slip………

Terrorism=Saddam=Arafat=simple minded liberals. Bring on all technology that will stop terrorism. The President is well within his legal and Constitutional rights to protect America....the latter is all we need to know.

[canuck_conservative]

Maybe Karl Rove could re-work the commercial with a snake, instead of the bear. The message is still relevant!

[festus]

The bear is still in the woods though he's lost a little weight and right now there's this funny looking guy with a turban in front of him screeching like a banshee.

America gets it which is why Kerry had to pretend he was behind what Bush was doing even though he wasn't.

[wildbill]

They ought to update the commercial to:

There's a cobra in the desert...

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

Bump