Bare knuckles:

Bush and the White House is at it again: (excerpts, emp add)

Bush Assails Democrats Over Patriot Act

President Bush accused Democrats yesterday of blocking a full reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act for political reasons, as the White House stepped up an aggressive campaign to defend the president's terrorism-fighting authority.

"For partisan reasons, in my mind, people have not stepped up," Bush told reporters, with 19 federal prosecutors by his side.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, speaking to reporters earlier in the day, said Senate Democrats are simply doing the bidding of liberal special interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the broad surveillance power authorized by the act. Democrats are trying to "appease" the ACLU "because they want to weaken and undermine the Patriot Act," McClellan said.

Adopting campaign-style tactics, Bush and his aides plan to accuse Democrats of jeopardizing national security to further their political agenda, a tack that worked well for the White House in the 2002 and 2004 elections.

Let us be clear here. Bush and McClellan are saying that Democrats are opposing provisions in the USA Patriot Act, not on any principle, but in order to damage Bush politically and curry favor with liberal special interest groups. They are saying that the Democratic party, with a distinct governing philosophy, is not acting on principle with regard to the Patriot Act, but instead acting only to diminish the Republicans.

That's cheap and wrong. Perhaps the only practicable response is to return the favor. Say that everything Bush and the Republicans do is "politics". Just say it again and again and again. And again.


posted by Quiddity at 1/04/2006 01:38:00 AM