Back to the ‘law enforcement’ talking point

September 9, 2007

On its face, it’s rather mystifying that Meet the Press has made David Brody a regular contributor. While progressive voices have been effectively absent from the Sunday morning shows in recent years, Tim Russert has invited the Capitol Hill correspondent for TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network on for political analysis three times in as many months.

Perhaps, one might say, Brody’s analysis is so enlightening, it transcends his bizarre and embarrassing boss. I’m afraid that’s just not the case. Consider this exchange from this morning:

RUSSERT: Every debate, David Brody, the Republicans have, they make their point, “We understand Islamic fascism; we understand the terrorist threat; the Democrats don’t.” That is going to be their issue in 2008, just as it was in ’04 and 2000.

BRODY: There’s no doubt about it. I mean, it’s somewhat of a, on the Republican side, a testosterone convention, in essence, is what it is. Because you have John McCain following him [bin Laden] “to the gates of hell.” And you have Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney now saying Osama bin Laden is “crazy” and a little “cooky.”

They are going to push this all the time. What’s interesting though, I think, the bigger issue is on national security. You notice that the Democrats in all of these poll numbers that we see, that they trump the Republicans in many areas. When it comes to national security, it’s roughly about even now…. At the end of the day, Republicans, this issue helps the Republicans more than the Democrats because they’re going to be able to enforce this idea that Democrats want to go at this with law enforcement and Republicans don’t and I think that will be the key difference as we move forward.

What?

It’s hard to know where to begin with this kind of assessment, but the first thing that jumped out at me is the notion that Republican presidential hopefuls describing Osama bin Laden as “cooky” is evidence of “testosterone.” Maybe I’m behind on my understanding of slang, but “cooky” doesn’t strike me as a particularly aggressive insult for the terrorist responsible for 9/11.

Second, after an odd non sequitur, Brody believes Dems are going to lose support on national security because they believe intelligence gathering and law-enforcement efforts are the keys to effective counter-terrorism. But isn’t it fairly obvious by now that Dems are right about this? Indeed, just last week, German officials disrupted a dangerous terrorist plot, not by sending in an army, but through months of intelligence gathering and law-enforcement legwork.

Brody is repeating a Bush talking point from three years ago, which was suspect at the time, and nonsensical now. The president, for example, told a Florida audience on March 20, 2004:

“Kerry said, and I quote, ‘The war on terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation.’ (Audience boos.) I disagree. I disagree…. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. With those attacks, the terrorists and supporters declared war on the United States of America — and war is what they got. (Audience applauds.)

Bush, pleased with himself and the reaction, used almost the identical words again and again and again. Cheney used it a few times himself.

It was pretty easy to see the image Bush wanted the public to imagine. Bush believes in sending the most powerful military in the world to battle terrorists, Kerry was satisfied fighting al Queda with cops and lawyers.

Recent efforts to disrupt terrorist plots, however, help highlight exactly what Kerry was talking about, and what Bush derided as nonsense to considerable Republican applause. So why is Brody repeating this foolishness all over again?

Maybe Meet the Press’ bookers can expand their Rolodex a little bit?

The problem isn’t Brody. It’s that goddamned Catholic-conservative asshole Russert.

  • But Steve, you are being far too sensible. The key words in your own post are Bush, pleased with . . . the reaction. . .

    It may be completely wrong, it may make no sense at all, but the public continues to respond viscerally to the idea of war on terrotists rather than law enforcement. We are, sadly, a country that is hooked on testosterone. We are violent and brash and short-tempered. We watch NASCAR solely to see people in firey crashes, and we listen to country music about kickin peoples’ ass.

    Brody may not be as far off as we in this community would like to believe — and the entire country’s security is worse off for it.

    This is your note of pessimism for the day.
    Now, time for me to go watch overgrown men in tribal colors try to break each others’ bones all afternoon 🙂

  • I think the trouble stems, in part, from the GOP’s view of terrorists. They see them as agents of Satan, part of the “evil empire”, precursor to Armageddon, etc. They see the “war on terror” as a last stand for Christianity against, well, non-Christianity.

    Terrorists are thugs. They are no different from Al Capone’s boys, obtaining power through fear and intimidation. They should be dealt with in the same way. If you can get them for tax evasion (even though it’s less glamorous), do so. Police work is the only thing which works.

    Of course, sanity plays no role in the Bush’s brain-addled approach. That would require experience with the real world.

  • More republican cheerleaders…what a surprise. I never watch MTP or any TV news except for the Newshour on PBS. I am so grateful for the internet. Today the only way to not know what our MSM and TV news shows have turned into is to not want to know…thanks to the blogs.

  • I think the trouble stems, in part, from the GOP’s view of terrorists. They see them as agents of Satan, part of the “evil empire”, precursor to Armageddon, etc. They see the “war on terror” as a last stand for Christianity against, well, non-Christianity.

    I don’t think the Republicans see them as agents of Satan. I think they see them as bums, as “trash,” as “niggers.” They see them as people inferior to themselves in a racial or class-based way.

    We are, sadly, a country that is hooked on testosterone. We are violent and brash and short-tempered.

    I think this is incorrect, and just buys into the line Brody and his type are trying to sell. Furthermore, I think the “crazy” and “cooky” comments are really safe efforts to show that kind of testosterone, as women say plenty of nasty stuff about people. Saying the words “crazy” or “cooky” just isn’t a ticket into a hyper-male tough fest. To the contrary: Anyone who doesn’t describe bin Laden in at least these terms is a little off his/her rocker, no matter how prim or peaceful he or she may be.

  • Shorter Brody: Fighting the last war continue to be a winning strategy for Republicans in the next election — Democrats may be on about equal footing with them at this point but in the end, the Maginot the line will prove decisive.

    It is an interesting point however that public trust for Democrats on keeping people safe from terrorism has lagged the perceptual advantages they now enjoy on almost every other issue. The most likely-seeming explanations for this are paradoxical, but I don’t think I would be too quick to rule out Republicans’ penchant for going around talking like John Wayne all the time as a possible factor. So I really can’t bring myself to be as derisive of Brody’s assertion as I would like to be.

  • Grunt!
    Howl!
    [Thumps chest]
    Me leader!
    Snarl.
    Me strong!
    Me kick your ass!
    Grunt, grunt, growl.

  • Lumping together a large group of people and attributing one or two reasons for their actions is falling into the same trap as the the right wing loonies. Having said that I do think that many of us in America are caught in a reality that has crippled our ability to see and think “outside the box, or country to be more specific). None of us prescribe to all the ideas that follow but all of us have heard them since we were children and they have enough in common to have become a sort of a mythic base for many of our collective opinions.
    We, (the good guys), won the second world war because we were fighting on the side of all the ideals that our enlightened Western Society have distilled from the wisdom of all those who have come before us. We are still the good guys.
    We won because we were able to use the resources of the countries and people, who chose our ideas over the ideas of our enemies. Thus we are entitled to continue this practice forever.
    The very material and intellectual richness that most of us have experienced since we were children proves that our way is the best and perhaps the only way to live.
    The United States is the best place to live in at this time because a person has a better chance to, “be who they want to be”, here.
    Since so many people from all over the world want to come here to “better their lives”, we are entitled to export our way of life to other countries for their own good, in the long run.
    We need the resources from the rest of the world to continue our way of life. This is a reality.
    We want our lives and the lives of our children to become better and better.
    Our freedom to speak and to produce ideas is sacred to us as a people and if this means that if our largest “intellectual”, export to the rest of the world and the Middle East in particular is pornography that is the fault of their society not ours. Our society should not be judged by actions and ideas to some are the worst examples of our behaviour as humans.
    We do crave excitement and this means our games are pretty violent, this is just part of our culture of freedom to push ourselves to the limit.
    We are too busy dealing with the problems of pursuing this kind life to want anything but simple solutions to other peoples problems if we even consider their problems.
    Each of us chooses small pieces out of the vast array of our myths, a belief system that we can live with most comfortably.
    Last year I heard a man who professed to me that he was a Christian declare, “the Iraq war is about oil and religion and 2000 casualties out of our population of over 200 million is a small price to pay, considering the stakes”.
    Please pardon the length, I got carried away with my free speech.
    David Chisholm

  • In a time when brains mattered more than testosterone, and when the general population was’t so dumbed down, outsmarting the brute and evil enemy by sheer cunning and cleverness was appreciated. No longer. Decades of Hollywood pandering to the lowest common denominator, endless chest thumping, vain-glorious nationalism, not to mention militarism, has now made any intelligent, non-violent approach to a tactic like terrorism wimpish. Stand up and fight like a man! Pistols at 20 paces. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. That’s the American way.

    The Rethugs know how to appeal to the gut. The Dim-Dems don’t.

  • At the end of the day, Republicans, this issue helps the Republicans more than the Democrats because they’re going to be able to…

    … beat Dems over the head with it, with a lot of help from CNN, Fox and Rush Limbaugh. The fascists still got it wrong, but it doesn’t matter, because the brownshirts see it as ammunition.

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