What is up with Pat Buchanan and the rest of the party of no? Have we not learned our lesson with what the past administration did – especially Dick (Darth Vader) Cheney – on torture? Is not Guantanamo Bay a stain on our history that the world will never forget? We cannot claim the moral high ground and then torture someone. But the party of no seem to not care about such things.
The GOP will obviously take anything and try to make their version of “hay” out of the situation, even at the expense of our national security. GOP lawmakers seemed to have conveniently forgotten that shoe-bomber Richard Reid was tried and convicted in federal court, and is currently serving a life sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado.
And the claim that President Obama and the current administration have been “lackadaisical” in responding is ludicrous; especially when compared to the former administration’s lukewarm response in December 2001 to Richard Reid’s failed attempt at setting off a shoe bomb on a commercial jetliner. The incidents are almost identical. Both took place during the holidays when both presidents were vacationing with family. Both attempts were foiled by alert passengers and plane crew. The glaring difference is in the response and follow up. Bush was evasive almost off the cuff and did not speak publicly until almost a week after the incident. Obama reacted immediately by conferring with his national security team and terrorists advisers the same day night and speaking to the nation within three days of the incident. The Huffington Post sums it up best.
“On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid … failed in his attempt to blow up a Miami-bound jet using explosives hidden in his shoe. … President Bush did not directly address the foiled plot for six days, according to an extensive review of newspaper records from that time period. And when he did, it was only in passing. … In a press conference on December 28, in Crawford, the president said that incident was proof that “the country has been on alert.”
In contrast … the current White House has been quite active. The attempted bombing … occurred on December 25. That night, Obama convened a secure conference call with his Homeland Security and counter-terrorism advisers. He did the same the next morning and the morning after that. On the 27th, the president dispatched … Robert Gibbs and … Janet Napolitano to the Sunday shows to take questions on the matter … on December 28, he gave a public statement while still on site in Hawaii.”
If we took the amount of time, money and energy that the GOP and the special interests groups and certain industries uses to derail the current administration’s efforts of fixing what they broke, there would be no recession, health care reform would be paid for and this country would be a less divided house.
