As long as Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is making headlines again, I thought it’d be fun to remind readers why his name might seem familiar.
Yesterday, a Wall Street Journal article about Bush’s Social Security scheme included a bizarre Cole line that seemed to tie the proposal to, of all things, terrorism.
“The president is going to go ahead,” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a Republican leadership lieutenant. “He cannot afford to fail. It would have repercussions for the rest of his program, including foreign policy. We can’t hand the president a defeat on his major domestic initiative at a time of war.”
If we’re to follow Cole’s logic, if Bush doesn’t get to privatize Social Security, he’ll be in a weaker position, which diminishes his presidency, which will make it harder for him to advance his agenda, which includes battling terrorists. By this reasoning, Bush we’ll have to give Bush virtually everything he asks for or, as the saying goes, the terrorists win. It’s the kind of wisdom only a right-winger could embrace.
But let’s not forget that the power of Cole’s deductive reasoning has a bit of a history. In March, he told a GOP gathering that a vote against Bush is tantamount to supporting Hitler during WWII or Osama bin Laden now.
“I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election, it’s that simple. It will be interpreted that way by enemies of the United States around the world.”
“What do you think Hitler would have thought if Roosevelt would’ve lost the election in 1944? He would have thought American resolve was [weakening].”
Have I mentioned that Tom DeLay has tapped Cole to be a GOP floor leader? This is the moden Republican Party.