The conventional wisdom tells us that the Bush White House places loyalty to the Republican cause at the top of its priority list. This is slightly off-base — the Bush gang places loyalty to them above everything.
Consider, for example, what Gordon England, Bush’s deputy defense secretary, argued yesterday.
If the furor over the port deal should go on, Mr. England said, it would give enemies of the United States aid and comfort: “They want us to become distrustful, they want us to become paranoid and isolationist.”
I suppose this was inevitable. It was only a matter of time — in this case, it took less than a week — before the administration argued publicly that it is literally dangerous to disagree with them. I guess Bush critics should be pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the message from the outset.
Just Tuesday, the president said, “I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions” about the port deal, but that was then. Forty-eight hours later, the message is no longer as tolerant. Our enemies are watching the controversy, England suggested, and if we don’t get behind the president’s position, the bad guys win.
To be sure, the message was aimed broadly. Dems are accustomed to this kind of demagoguery, but in this case, Republicans are on the receiving end too. In terms of those who are “distrustful” about the port deal, Republicans have been just as vocal as Dems, even top GOP leaders like Frist, Hastert, and DeLay. When England warned about giving aid and comfort to our enemies, he was talking about everyone who’s dared to question the wisdom of the UAE deal.
The last time the administration was willing to lash out at its allies like this, it was during the Harriet Miers fiasco, when White House adviser Ed Gillespie suggested that some of the unease about Miers “has a whiff of sexism and a whiff of elitism.” Oddly enough, this was not particularly well received by the GOP activists who were on the receiving end of Gillespie’s smear.
If Republicans don’t like this kind of demagoguery, especially when it’s pointed in their direction, now’s the time for them to say so.