I realize House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) must be a little on edge — he’s about to lose his job, he unexpectedly was forced to talk to investigators about his role in the Mark Foley scandal — but if he doesn’t want people to think he’s desperate, he’ll probably have to tone down the hysterical rhetoric.
On Sunday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was on 60 Minutes and was asked if she considered the war in Iraq part of the war on terror. “No,” Pelosi said, “The war on terror is the war in Afghanistan.”
Pelosi has said this before, many times, in many settings, as have countless others in the reality-based community. But Hastert is so desperate to do something to alter the political landscape, he decided to pursue this with gusto.
Speaker Hastert released a statement this morning calling comments recently made by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “irresponsible.” The statement said that Pelosi, who may become Speaker of the House if Democrats win control of Congress this November, does not understand the threats facing the United States.
“One cannot win the Global War on Terror if one does not understand it,” Hastert said…. Calling Pelosi’s stance “foolish, naïve, and dangerous,” Hastert said “If it were up to a Democratic majority, it would cut and run from the Global War on Terror, continue to coddle terrorists, create a United States Department of Peace and call it a day.”
You know it’s bad when I start feeling kind of sorry for Hastert.
“Continue” to coddle terrorists? When did we start coddling terrorists?
Create a United States Department of Peace? When Dennis Kucinich is named chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, maybe then Hastert can start whining.
And as for “foolish, naïve, and dangerous,” Hastert may not appreciate just how many Americans he’s smearing at once.
Americans increasingly see the war in Iraq as distinct from the fight against terrorism, and nearly half believe President Bush has focused too much on Iraq to the exclusion of other threats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed saw no link between the war in Iraq and the broader antiterror effort, a jump of 10 percentage points since June. That increase comes despite the regular insistence of Mr. Bush and Congressional Republicans that the two are intertwined and should be seen as complementary elements of a strategy to prevent domestic terrorism.
Keep on swinging, Mr. Speaker, you’re bound to hit something someday.