“Giving mercy to the merciless is not a virtue, it is suicide.” —Jethro Tull
If you’ve frequented this place before, you know that your host has little use for anything connected with the Party of the Waffling (otherwise known as Democrats), generally, or Democrat politicians, particularly. Let’s just say consistency and credibility are related—that is, for everyone but the party’s own myopic supporters.
For example, when the “leak” surrounding sometime-CIA agent Valerie Plame got around, Democrats went into histrionics demanding that an investigation be conducted into the origins of that leak.
When a similar leak revealed that liberal’s Great Satan that is George W. Bush was authorizing the NSA to conduct warrantless wiretaps, pious loud-mouthed Democrats weren’t interested in conducting an investigation into that leak. No, they wanted to know where W. got off violating a bunch of suspected terrorists’ civil liberties. (Perhaps hand-wringing Democrats could let the rest of us in on this: Why, exactly, is the national security leak in the former instance deserving of an “investigation,” but the latter is not?)
If that’s too difficult to explain, perhaps they can explain this: Democratic former President Jimmy Carter gave himself the exact same authority back in 1979 as did President Bill Clinton in 1995 regarding warrantless searches. How is it that W. deserves excoriation for exercising these powers? (Or perhaps it’s just his party affiliation?)
If that’s too difficult to explain, perhaps they can explain this. Where have all those Democrats (who have been briefed on the program some 30 times since 2001) been hiding, and why the righteous indignation now?
If that’s too difficult to explain, perhaps they can explain this. While Bush bashers denounce the “loss” of our civil liberties, exactly what has been lost? Let’s see. About 500 enemy combatants have been detained at Guantanamo Bay and maybe a few thousand suspected terrorists have had some phone calls and e-mails intercepted. (Compared to the Democrat hero Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had 120,000 innocent people indiscriminately tossed into internment camps.)
And as for those poor souls at Gitmo, we know they’re all being “tortured” because the Great Satan—at least tacitly—approves of it. And we’re talking about people that wear no uniform, skulk around like a New Jersey cockroach and adhere to no rules of engagement by indiscriminately killing innocent civilians. While I’m not exactly all for ripping off a suspect’s fingernails, common sense would indicate a CIA operative should have a little more at his disposal than harsh language.
Or perhaps we’re not considering the sensibilities of your average Democrat. Let’s recall that every liberal from coast to coast got their pantyhose in a bunch when it became known that a few soldiers “abused” copies of the Koran in front of some detainees. (And God forbid detainees have their religious dietary needs go unmet or get sick of their “lemon-pepper chicken with saffron rice.” I mean, are you kidding me?)
And, finally, we know that certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act are set to expire in February if Congress doesn’t act. While it was given a brief reprieve last month, our own Sen. Harry Reid boasted, “We’ve killed the Patriot Act” to cheers from a “civil-rights crowd” after the vote.
Of course, let’s remember “Give’em Hell Harry” was all for the Patriot Act when he voted for it back in 2001. Let’s see, so was every single Democratic Senator—save one—when it passed the Senate 98-1.
Those are Democrats for you. Consistent and credible.
Or perhaps not.