Right Nightmare, Wrong Party

Politico reminds us that terrorism that should happen on a Republican's watch is a chance for America to come together when 3,000 people are killed.  Should a Democrat be in charge however, it's a nightmare.

The muted response, allies said, was aimed at denying al Qaeda a propaganda victory, and at demonstrating how little the terrorists can now disrupt Americans’ lives. “The president and his team have done a good job at handling the situation given the competing interests at play. He’s been forceful without the bellicose chest bumping of the last administration,” said Jim Manley, the chief spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “One thing he’s got going for him is Republicans have no credibility on this issue when their sending out former Vice President Cheney you know they’ve hit the bottom of the barrel.”

Still, the response failed to reckon with the intense public interest in a story of repeated government failures and a near-fatal attack. Not to mention that Americans and flight crews were on edge – as evidenced in the detainment of a man who was in an airplane bathroom for too long and who authorities released once they learned he was just a businessman who’d gotten ill. The White House, already feeling heat for its Christmas Day response, had a spokesman quickly issue a statement when the man was taken into custody.

In Obama’s effective absence, Republicans began sharply attacking the administration, producing a partisan stand-off critics say could have been avoided.

“They should have approached it as a national security emergency requiring a bipartisan response, not a political response,” said Doug Schoen, a pollster who worked for President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. “He absolutely should have interrupted his vacation and absolutely should have gone back to Washington, and convened a high-level, bipartisan meeting.”

So, to recap:  Republicans have no credibility on terrorism because 9/11 happened on their watch.  Democrats however have less credibility because a Nigerian man set his crotch on fire on an airliner.

Our liberal Village media, ladies and gentlemen, demands a bipartisan solution to the problem, which apparently entails letting the Republicans (with their zero credibility) lecture the President on how to stop the terrorists they couldn't.

Our political discourse is broken.