White House: Elder Bush Caused 9/11

The White House today accused President George H. W. Bush of bringing on 9/11. Or at least, that’s what the twisted logic of White House spokesman Tony Snow implied.

Snow explained that by "walking away" from Iraq after the Gulf War in 1991--a decision made by then-President Bush--we emboldened Bin Laden to come after us because he saw us as weak. And if we exit Iraq now, Snow argued, we will send the same message to Bin Laden again.

What intellectual nonsense. Like Bin Laden isn’t coming after us already?

And Ken Mehlman, the embodiment of GOP spin, distortion and evasion, wouldn’t even deny the implication that Republican leaders, including Ronald Reagan and his withdrawl of Marines from Beirut, have sent the wrong message to terrorists in the past. Talking to Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball, Mehlman changed the subject, as he did with many of Matthew’s other tough questions.

Republicans desperately want the American public to believe that our presence in Iraq still holds some valuable purpose. But voters know better.

And that’s what the nomination of Ned Lamont to the Democratic Senate ticket in Connecticut demonstrates. The public is way out in front of the GOP, and Joe Lieberman, too. Loser Lieberman today tried to paint Lamont as “far out of the mainstream,” which is exactly wrong. By supporting Bush and his disastrous policies, Lieberman demonstrated that he was way outside the mainstream, and voters punished him for it.

The more Republicans try to brand Democrats as hippie Communist peaceniks and America haters, the more they offend the conclusions already made by the general public--that Iraq was a blunder, our occupation has been a disaster, our safety is diminished and none of the GOP “leaders” have the guts to change course.

Ken Mehlman constantly says that Democrats and Liberals love to “blame America”. But in fact, along with many Independents and even some Republicans, they love to blame Bush and the Republicans because the blame is well earned. The GOP has made a big, fat, stinking mess of things.

The stupidity and hollowness of the current Republican battle-cry testifies to their desperation and policy bankruptcy. They cannot concede their mistakes or they will lose their newfound power. And lose it they should.