Pufferfish

Then And Now

The Bush years:

Even beyond the immediate political manipulation there was always a drive to push the country back into a 'high-fear' climate, with a presidential statements, always with some new leaked intel to dramatize the threat, even what you might call the iconography of terror -- color coded threat levels and the like.

But that isn't totally right:

Eight years ago, "a terrorist bomber's attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers, an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security just a few months after the attacks of September 11. But it was six days before President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made any public remarks about the so-called 'shoe bomber,' Richard Reid, and there were virtually no complaints from the press or any opposition Democrats that his response was sluggish or inadequate."

Obviously the Bush administration used terror threats as a political weapon. It's a convenient extension of the conservative worldview which sees aggressive grandstanding and heightened anxiety as a genuine strength. Issuing a threat warning was also a form of foreplay for Dick Cheney. The common thread between the Shoe Bomber and the Underpants Bomber is that both administrations avoided a terrorist attack on their watch through sheer luck. Our best defense was operator error. Because that's clear, neither administration could make a claim to competence or control. So the attacks were spun as non-events. That's the expected reaction by the Obama folks, who downplay everything related to terrorism ("Keep Calm And Carry On" might as well be the mantra, as Marshall notes). For the Bush administration, the Shoe Bomber was a terrorism threat that couldn't be used for political gain. But this one is on Obama's watch. Thus the silence then and the furor now, with the upshot being the GOP will always play the fear card—except when it can't.

Once Again

This time with feeling:

Surprisingly, the Senator who did the most to emphasize the absurdity of the situation was Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader. He recalled the votes on Social Security and Medicare, both of which passed with substantial Republican support. Social Security and Medicare, of course, were government-run programs paid for by straight tax increases. They were far more offensive to conservatives than the current legislation, which funds a mostly-private sector health-care expansion by trimming the budget of Medicare, America's largest single-payer health-care system.

Even as the bills Democrats pursue have become more moderate, the roll calls have become more partisan.

More impressive was the sight of John McCain saying Ted Kennedy wouldn't "appreciate" the bill passing cloture on a party-line vote (which Republicans made sure happened). I'd wager there's a few things Kennedy wouldn't appreciate and one of them was Republicans trying to take full advantage of the timing of his death to derail health care. None of his colleagues across the aisle mentioned respecting his interests or his constituents from Massachusetts. He was, momentarily, just one less vote to worry about.

Before Obama was even sworn-in Republicans had dusted off the '94 playbook and called on former Clinton reform-killing stars like Bill Kristol and Betsy McCaughey to lead their campaign of misinformation, fantastic lies and promises of death that poisoned the well and led people to angrily oppose broader, cheaper access to health care. Doesn't get much weirder than that. More telling was the GOP's decision over the last 15 years to ignore an industry with exploding costs in dire need of reform. Our health care system is what it is today because Republicans blocked reform when out of power and did nothing while in power. McCain can feel free to throw a tantrum. But he's got no answer for his own record of inaction.

The Politics Of Obstructionism

Judging by Mitch McConnell's spin, you'd never guess Republicans were using every parliamentary trick in the book to slow down health care reform:

"If they were proud of this bill they wouldn't be doing it this way. They wouldn't be jamming it through in the middle of the night on the last weekend before Christmas."

Yes, where has the golden age of backroom deals and late night arm twisting provided by Tom Delay gone? Not that I blame Republicans. Their tactics have helped fracture the Democratic Party and sent Obama's approval rating into a tailspin. And that's what matters when raw power is more important to a party than governing. But that also means playing politics with the troops and basic decency toward other senators are a necessary collateral damage when throwing up filibuster after filibuster:

After years of criticizing Democrats for not supporting the troops, just three Republicans supported the military funding.” “Rarely has the Senate seen such a sad statement,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last night. “Rarely have I seen such brazen irresponsibility. And rarely have our nation's citizens received such little regard from their leaders." At 1:06 am, in fact, 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D) arrived to cast his vote, O’Donnell reports. The ailing Byrd was brought inside the chamber in a wheelchair, and his colleagues reacted by applauding. During that applause, Byrd raised his hand with a thumbs-up to signal an "aye" vote as he was heard saying, "Shame, shame."

Spin Me Right Round

Good to see Chris Matthews stepping up and admitting it was obnoxious and stupid to say Obama gave his Afghanistan speech at West Point to the "enemy camp." On Tuesday night Matthews wondered aloud why there wasn't more pompom waiving from military cadets; a comment so stupid I had to remind myself to breath. But the larger issue is that Matthews feels free to parrot Republican talking points and assume the military is a "skeptical audience" when a Democrat is commander in chief. Beyond empty Rovian rhetoric there isn't much in the way of evidence except, well, this:

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain.

I realize that's just a snap shot. But it's the most recent snap shot. And it indicates Matthews wasn't just an ass. He was flat out wrong.

And as long as we're on Afghanistan, I need to make a few broader points. After Obama's speech, Dan Senor, former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and general war fanboy, said with a touch of glee: “If you had told me Obama would have doubled the number of troops in Afghan and not significantly reduced our presence in Iraq, I would have had a hard time believing it.” Throw that together with Bill Kristol's ebullient reaction and it's enough to ask how different our Middle East policy is today than it would have been under a third Bush term.

Now, the fundamental problem I have with Obama's Afghanistan plan is that a) there is no achievable mission (other than temporarily delaying a Taliban resurgence) and b) the initial objective of kicking out al Qaeda has morphed (predictably) into reinventing Afghanistan as a “modern state.” That gets us back to Colin Powell's Pottery Barn maxim on invading Iraq: we broke it, now we own it. And if we're to learn anything from history it's that nation-building is a fool’s errand. The idea that Afghans will be ready to assume control of the country in 18 months would be hilarious if it wasn't the actual stated policy goal. The upshot is that Obama's plan has almost no chance of fundamentally changing the country's long-term prospects. I suppose one could argue that's better than a zero chance. And so in an effort to pacify the military and the GOP, Obama is sending in more troops while using the time line for withdrawal to appease his own party and foreign allies, who wouldn't sign on for an indefinite occupation.

As for the GOP's sad attempts to paint Obama as soft, it's Obama who is doubling the troop levels in Afghanistan while the right neglected the country for years. Earlier this week Dick Cheney attacked Obama’s "weakness" for ordering more troops into Afghanistan—despite being presented with the same request from Gen. David D. McKiernan a year earlier and leaving the decision to be made by the next administration. More worrisome is that the GOP establishment thought we had Afghanistan taken care of years ago. In 2005, John McCain declared victory when he said: “The facts on the ground are we went to Afghanistan and we prevailed there.” It was assumed Afghanistan had been locked down. It wasn't. What confidence should we have that this time will be any different?

It Don't Make No Sense That Common Sense Don't Make Sense

Matt Yglesias, for the win:

It’s common sense that heavy objects fall faster than light ones, and there’s absolutely nothing commonsensical about the correct answer to the Monty Hall Problem. It’s common sense that something called a “strong” dollar must be good, but in fact whether or not it’s good depends on the situation. It’s common sense that when families across the nation tighten their belts, the government should too, but it’s wrong. In fact, the reverse is true and the government ought to get more parsimonious when the private sector is flush, and vice versa. It’s common sense that if you can’t smell or taste or see atmospheric carbon dioxide it must not be a big problem, but it is!

Down Goes Huckabee

Sarah Palin just saw her biggest rival for the social conservative vote flame out:

Nine years ago in Arkansas, The Seattle Times reported, Mr. Clemmons was released from prison after Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his lengthy prison sentence, over the protests of prosecutors. Late Sunday night, Mr. Huckabee’s political action committee released a statement saying that “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State” would be to blame if Mr. Clemmons were found responsible for the shootings.

And this is exactly why politicians hate commuting a sentence, never mind the merits. Better safe than sorry. For their political careers, that is.

The Rule Of Projection

It's often safe to assume that whatever Republicans are complaining about they are guilty of themselves. So it holds with the lunacy over word count, with Republicans trying desperately to link the literal size of the health care reform bill to the figurative idea of big government and overspending:

The second longest bill to appear in Congress over the past 10 years was authored by Republican Rep. Don Young [R, AK-1]. It’s a mere 68 words shorter than the House health care bill. Of the 10 longest bills in the past ten years, five were written by Democrats and five were written by Republicans.

And then there's Bush's No Child Left Behind bill, which came in as the fifth wordiest piece of legislation over the last decade. Of course, don't expect facts to get in the way of a ridiculous argument. 

Wanted: New Material

I'm going to be on the road for the holiday so posting will be light over the next few days. But before heading for the land of milk and honey, I wanted to drop this humdinger:

Did you know that the youngest person to have cast a ballot for Reagan in 1984 is now 43 years old? And that, by 2012, that person will be 46?

Maybe You Had To Be There

It follows that former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey isn't big on the job his replacement is doing. And I know politics is a contact sport. But Jeebus:

Q: Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia says anybody that questions KSM coming to New York City for a civilian trial — that they’re un-American. What is your reaction to that?

MUKASEY: I think he’s lost touch with reality. He ought to get professional help, perhaps from Maj. Nidal.

Lessons Learned

This weekend taught us that Republicans are a party of bed-wetters:

What happened to the right wing swagger? When did they turn into such a bunch of scared wimps? When did they go from standing there in the rubble with George Bush and his megaphone to hiding under Dick Cheney’s desk cowering in fear?

Personally, I can’t think of anything more defiant than taking KSM, frog-marching him through Manhattan, giving him a fair trial, and then sending him to prison forever or executing him. That is how you show the terrorists that we aren’t going to be fazed.

Public trials are bad for the torture business, government secrecy and fearmongering. But that's not the argument the right is making. Instead a party that's never been agnostic on the effectiveness of the judicial system is pretending terrorists are larger than our laws and values.