The War of the Hacks

Washington Post ^ | September 23. 2006 | Colbert I. King

[PolishProud]

.. Seen from afar, the congressional debate over the war and terrorism comes across as a Washington event designed to show that Democrats are wimps on national security and to boost Republicans as true defenders of the homeland. Or Republicans are portrayed as clueless warmongers hell-bent on sending other people's sons and daughters into battle...

In reality, the struggle on Capitol Hill is not about terrorism. It's about gaining and holding power in the fall election. And it is a disgusting sight to behold...

Self-regarding members of Congress, intent on keeping their jobs, have forgotten all about enemies who are so convinced of America's evil and their own righteousness that they can justify making everything in this country -- its national treasures and its people -- targets for destruction.

Listen closely to the huffing and puffing on Capitol Hill. It's all about criticizing each other on the war. They work themselves into a lather arguing about which party can best represent Americans in the hallowed halls of Washington. Watch as they strut and brag about how their party is, because of a surfeit of patriotic zeal, best able to hold terrorist-harboring countries accountable...

Each party treats the other like a malignancy on the body politic when the real cancer is the terrorists whose malignant objective is to kill and maim, to show us how vulnerable we are, to instill fear and to bring this country to its knees...

So, while members of Congress slip, slide, peep and hide in their quest for cheap political advantage, somewhere, somehow, a group not unlike those who got to us five years ago is plotting against crowded suburban shopping malls, downtown cultural centers, subway stations, football stadiums and sources of drinking water.

[PolishProud]

The writer damns politicians with a broad brush, but if he would look further than the latest sound bytes, there are differences. President Bush has never wavered in his advocacy for democracy and the Iraq war, while Democrats voted for and now against the Iraq war to take advantage of the media driven anti-war sentiment.

My definition of a political hack is one who lacks principles and will bend which ever way he needs to in order to gain power.

[CDHart]

I can't believe this is from the Washington Post. However, a broken clock is right twice a day. Thanks for posting it. Your definition of a hack does describe probably 90% of the politicians I know anything about. They're preening, posturing, power-hungry and dangerous.

Carolyn

[bill1952]

The WaPo? Whats going on? :)

[ClaireSolt]

Here they preen and plot in public view. Elsewhere they pull strings behind the scenes. Every society has these egotistical wannabes. As hard as they are to take, we are better off watching them.

[ballplayer]

They paint these Barbarians as the monsters they are and then conclude we should bring them before the Bar of Justice? PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE,cant we just obliterate them!

[browardchad]

Watch as they strut and brag about how their party is, because of a surfeit of patriotic zeal, best able to hold terrorist-harboring countries accountable...

Exactly who are they strutting and bragging for? The media.

Physician, heal thyself.

[gotribe]

So, while members of Congress slip, slide, peep and hide in their quest for cheap political advantage, somewhere, somehow, a group not unlike those who got to us five years ago is plotting against crowded suburban shopping malls, downtown cultural centers, subway stations, football stadiums and sources of drinking water.

Which is why when the next attack comes, we will quickly do the calculus: our government will not protect us, so we must protect ourselves. Not going to be pretty.

[GSlob]

"My definition of a political hack is one who lacks principles and will bend which ever way he needs to in order to gain power."
A scoundrel [V. Lenin] liked to use the term "political prostitute" for the same thing. His term is more descriptive and thus preferable [think hillary].

[Gondring]

In reality, the struggle on Capitol Hill is not about terrorism. It's about gaining and holding power in the fall election.

Ping

[Richard Axtell]

Whenever the Left-Democrats-Liberals etc. are essentially proven wrong in policy, documented as wrong in fact, and shown to be corrupt, dishonest, etc., we hear "everybody is at fault" or "we all do it". No, we don't all steal documents to distort evidence before a congressional investigative committee. No, we all don't put a corrupt political appointee on the committee that is responsible for barriers to intelligence sharing between key departments so as to prevent that truth from entering the report. No we don't all lie in book after partisan book about the failures of our current president, and try to rewrite history exonerating the former as well. Let's really look at the record, and then NOT repeat the same failed policy decisions that led to the atrocity of 9/11.

[jan in Colorado]

There IS a difference. One side is driven by appeasement and polls, the other side, disregards the polls and fights to implement what he can to fight our enemies. I will take a fighter over an appeaser EVERY time!

In the mean time...lock 'n load!

[Don Corleone]

Every society has these egotistical wannabes.

The bad thing is they are NOT wannabees. They are in fact BE's! They control our lives, our fortunes and anything else they can think of to attack. They are dangerous people and should be closely controlled.

[ClaireSolt]

You have my sympathy.

[JasonC]

Typical moral equivalence garbage, as usual. Democrats commit treason and undermine our security. Republicans win the argument with them in the court of public opinion. So the press says "they are all just playing politics with the war". If the dems were winning on security you'd never see this. It is an attempt to make the dems look no worse and the republicans no better, on security and patriotism. They know they'd be laughed off the planet if they said the dems were actually better, so they say they are all the same.