We’ve heard it from Howard Dean. Most rational folks would put that his hate-filled comments about Republicans on the backburner and consider it the opinion of one man.
But when you hear it from former Clinton advisor Paul Begala, that’s a problem:
Begala’s presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had ‘done a p***-poor job of defending’ the U.S.
Republicans, he said, ‘want to kill us.
‘I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit’ on Sept. 11, 2001. ‘I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me,’ Begala said.
‘They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted — that while they didn’t protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won’t have to pay any money on the money they inherit,’ Begala said. ‘That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that.’
It doesn’t stop there,
A panel discussion entitled ‘Winning the War of Ideas’ centered on topics discussed in the book ‘What’s the Matter with Kansas’ by Thomas Frank and detailed the challenges that Democrats face in persuading voters in the American heartland and elsewhere to embrace their agenda and support their candidates.
…
Frank insisted that Republicans are not quite as tough on national security as many Americans think.
“Franklin Roosevelt got us in World War II. They dragged the Republicans kicking and screaming. They didn’t want to get in that war. They didn’t have any problem with Hitler. I won’t go so far as to say they thought Hitler rocked. But there were people in America who did, and they didn’t want us to get in that war. Democrats have always been just as tough as Republicans once they’re in office,” Frank said.
Of course, this article shows shades of what has to be the most glaring of criticisms against Democratic stewardship of our intelligence services pre-9/11.
The Clinton administration’s national security efforts involved the right blend of ‘experience’ and ‘strength,’ Begala said, an assertion with which the 9/11 Commission apparently disagreed.
For all the criticism against President Bush post-9/11, is it too much of a stretch to say that Republcians are literally playing catch-up for the Clinton-era faliures duing the 1990’s when al-Qaeda was festering under the surface? A festering that Begala permitted under his tenure?
Maybe it’s the idea that the smaller a group, the more fanatical its members become. I don’t know. Some Republicans would like to sit back and let Dean, Frank, and Begala roll on, but they aren’t going to go away. My concern is that these fanatical ideologues – and they are little else – will mainstream themselves in their own party for no other reason than they are the only ones providing vision and direction.
God help the Democratic Party. They need it.