When it comes to exploiting 9/11, Republicans are throwing tact out the window

As political conventions of the last century have gone, there’s a predictable pattern. Both parties select a host city about two years before the convention and then schedule the events for the summer preceding the November election. The party that doesn’t have the White House goes first, usually a couple of weeks before the party with the White House.

There’s often some juggling to accommodate the summer Olympics that are always held in a presidential election year, but the conventions have never gone as late as September. That is, until now.

If you’re thinking this isn’t important, and that the scheduling of a political convention is just insider trivia, think again.

The Republican Party has carefully scheduled its nominating convention so that Bush will make his acceptance speech on Sept. 2. It will be the latest party convention in American presidential history — and it’s all for crass political exploitation.

The idea, as the New York Times reported yesterday, is for the GOP convention to wrap up in early September so “the event would flow into the commemorations of the third anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.”

“The back-to-back events would complete the framework for a general election campaign that is being built around national security and Mr. Bush’s role in combating terrorism,” the Times reported. “Not incidentally, they said they hoped it would deprive the Democratic nominee of critical news coverage during the opening weeks of the general election campaign. The strategy, described by Republicans close to the White House, is intended to highlight what Mr. Bush’s advisers want to be the main issue of his campaign, national security.”

This is low, even for Republicans.

Maureen Dowd, a Times columnist, called the move an example of “appalling political opportunism.”

“Perhaps President Bush should just skip the pretense of [Madison Square] Garden and give his acceptance speech at ground zero,” Maureen joked sardonically.

With all due respect, Ms. Dowd, please don’t give them any ideas.

I can only hope for two things, neither of which strikes me as likely. One, that Americans will find the GOP’s craven exploitation of a national tragedy so distasteful that the strategy will backfire, and the White House’s political team will have to scramble to say the scheduling of the events so close to 9/11 was merely coincidental.

And two, I hope that national security really is a central point of the 2004 campaign so that the Democratic nominee will get the chance to highlight just how abysmal the Bush administration’s record is on improving domestic security. Kerry and Edwards have already started to make this a campaign issue, and I think it bears repeating over and over again.

A guy can dream, right?