Posted on 08/09/2003 9:04:27 AM PDT by Bob J
"Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory...Screwing Up The Uranium Thing"
by Tom Adkins
Political gambles come in all sizes and shapes.
When Walter Mondale questioned Ronald Reagan's age, Reagan promised not to use Mondale's youth and inexperience against him. America laughed. Mondale lost. When George H. W. Bush asked America to read his lips, then compromised on a tax increase, America revolted when the economy tanked. Bush went fishing in Kennebunkport.
Today, we are in the middle of "the Uranium Thing." In his State of the Union Address, George W. Bush claimed, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of Uranium from Africa." The statement is irrefutable. One aspect of the British case was exposed as a fraud, but they stand by their story. There's more, but they can't tell us. It's secret, stupid.
Yet Democrats are making a united, concerted effort to distort facts, exaggerate issues, and risk national security to score political points, claiming George Bush lied to America to prod us into war. Sounds ridiculous, but they are squeezing that turnip and getting blood. Hey, it's worked before. That's how Bill Clinton got elected.
And if you wondered whether the press had left the Democrat plantation, you can now see them hard at work in the fields, hoeing and sowing the liberal party line.
It's a gamble. If Republicans come up with proof, Democrats look stupid, small, and, frankly, traitorous. Yet it's a reasonable gamble. Bush may not be able to reveal the info he's got. And with little chance of winning on 2004, Democrats are taking the shot.
But in any battle, offensive moves create opportunities for defensive counterattacks. And Democrats left a gaping hole that Republicans simply missed. When Democrats claimed George Bush lied, the entire force of the White House, both branches of Congress, and the conservative pundit class should have been brought to bear upon Democrats for their 40-year assault on our national defense. Frank Church was shocked, shocked that our operatives were dealing with bad people, and he made it stop. John Deutsch and Bill Clinton decided we didn't need human assets because satellites could read license plates from 60,000 feet up. Clinton and Robert Torricelli conspired to stop dealing with spies if a potential spy recruit had any questionable human rights issues. And 40-years of a Democrat Congress made sure funds were cut whenever possible. So, we never knew anyone planned on hijacking planes and destroying skyscrapers because the CIA couldn't find any boy scouts in al Qaeda.
And since there were no apparent choirboys helping Saddam Hussein rape, torture, shred or murder Iraqi civilians, or create chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, his inner circle stayed intact, even today. Though George Bush has reorganized and unified all national security, Homeland Security is hardly up to speed quite yet. All the money in the world can't create the janitor who tells you who is having dinner with the President of Paradour this evening. We are a long way from establishing a decent human spy network.
In the meantime, George Bush faced a hard choice. The last time we didn't move on scattered intelligence, 3,000 Americans died. Since our human intelligence isn't up to speed yet, we rely on scraps from other nations. But intelligence gathering isn't as easy as it looks. Deals between bloody dictators aren't documented with a signed MasterCard receipt in triplicate, A hush here, a whisper there, a rumor yesterday, a sighting today. And maybe someone forges a document to get a few dollars for his dying sister. Like those game shows on TV, Bush wins the prize by guessing right long before the puzzle is completed. Except this is a high-stakes zero-sum game. Guess right, and your nation sleeps another night. Guess wrong, and Americans die. Nobody ever knows when you win. Thus, Iraq was liberated.
Post 9-11, Bush and the Republicans were silent in a noble effort to unite America. But almost everyone knew the four decade Democrat assault on national security was responsible for that awful event. Now, in a reckless political assault on truth, diplomacy and American security, Democrats are trying to gain a minor foothold in a hopeless political battle. But sadly, Republicans missed the opportunity to mash the whole mess right back in the face of the party of treason who caused the problem in the first place. Too bad. For awhile, it looked like Republicans finally got the hang of bareknuckled politics Democrats perfected. This time, it may be too late. In This Issue
Tom Adkins --- "The Modern Conservative"
©2003 Tom Adkins
For ex., in SD, Thune did not contest the Indian votes because a) he might still have lost, and b) he would be branded a whiner. Now he can come back in 04 against a sinking Daschle as a "victim" of "dirty tricks" and, if they watch the reservation voting, it will be tough to duplicate a sinister trick like that again.
I have---and I will presume to speak for many Freepers here--I think, all of us have GROSSLY underestimated the solid level of virulent opposition to Bush on the left. Initially, in the wake of 9/11, we thought that opposition amounted to about 15-20% of the "kooks." But Michael Barone was on Fox this morning, and he says that he is surprised by the level of animosity toward Bush by even the so-called "moderate" Dems that he knows. They utterly hate him.
He didn't ascribe this to anything in specific, but I do: no matter what Bush does on Ed policy or steel tariffs or Medicare, the one thing he has not and will not compromise is that he is the first president in 50 years to live his daily life as a Christian and to at every opportunity infuse Christian values into the debate. I am convinced this drives the Dems wild, because this runs counter to their very party, which was founded on the principle of protecting slavery (look it up). Long mythologized as the "party of Jefferson," the revived Dem. Party of the 1830s was SOLELY created to prevent a Civil War by protecting slavery. In other words, it is s party founded on sin. And for all the GOP's shortcomings, it is a party originally founded on rectifying that sin.
The modern Dems have become the party of "power at any cost," including that of national security. Clinton took it a step further, to be the party of lies. It has no moral grounding whatsoever.
Bush stands in direct opposition to this most core essence of the Dems, and no matter what "moderate" or social policies he adopts, he does so from a personal perspective that there is always an EVIL that must be confronted and defeated. This is what makes them crazy.
Due to that, I hardly think anyone has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. In fact, I think the advances that have been made (gains in the House, Senate, tax cuts, Executive Orders ending abortion) are remarkable given the level of opposition.
In short, we conservatives badly misread the national sentiment after 9/11, thinking that once, just once, our enemies might have "seen the light." It was a nice thought while it lasted.
No, actually, I NEVER believed that. I knew that the crapheads (AKA the Democrat Party) would come roaring back with excuses for the terrorists and blame for America- past behavior is the best predictor of future actions, after all.
As to the bogus "Uranium" flap, I am at a loss to imagine what the President and his advisors thought they were going to accomplish by apologizing for these 16 words- especially since they appeared to be TRUE at the time (and may still be found to be true). Did they think that the Dems would give up and "OK, no problem"???? He should have dealt with it very briefly, and then said NO MORE about it.
If this country puts the democrats back in power, we are finished- and I guess we would deserve to be. Despite the conspiracy theorists out there, Americans get pretty much what they want and deserve- in politicians, no less than in television shows.
I agree with you on putting them back in power, though. It will be a tough enough battle getting REPUBLICANS to cut spending and the growth of government, but with the Dems, there isn't a hope in hell.
No- all of the "Sam Nunn/ Scoop Jackson Dems" are Republicans now. That is how Reagan won his landslide 2nd term victory.
Here's ONE conservative who never trusted them for a moment! I have never mis-read the hate from the Left, nor do I think that the GOP has learned, or ever WILL learn, bare-knuckle fighting.
The Left will never forgive us for the 2000 election. The Left will never forget or forgive that Reagan helped take down the Soviets. Their hate knows no limit or depth. They Hate America. They Hate YOU.
And their hate will propel them back into a sweep of every branch of government, unless our "leaders" in the Senate have the guts to dispense with the "new tone" and use equal firepower against the Socialists who have sworn to destroy your country.
The lifeblood of 3/4 of the House and Senate is the ability buy votes. That is about half of the Repubs (yeah, yeah, probably more) and all of the Dems. The Dems are being marginalized in the committees along with their power source - tax revenue.
This ploy of trying to stick the "Liar" label on GWB is extremely precarious. If (more likely when) WMD are found in Iraq, the DNC will have to backtrack and try a new angle. The political currency of facetime/airtime will have been wasted on a dead end.
The Dems have not voiced a positive alternative. This will cost them dearly, regardless of finding WMD. Now if we can get the Repubs in Congress to quit acting like Dems and cut spending instead of increasing the size and breadth of the guvment (or is it gub-a-ment).
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