Yahoo: Bush now pays the price for politicizing national security

[seafan]

Bush now pays the price for politicizin national security

By Cynthia Tucker
Mon Feb 27, 11:00 AM ET

President Bush turns out to be a great professor of politics. His lessons -- he teaches through example -- have become essential political wisdom.
He taught Americans that all Arabs are alike by toppling Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with the terrorist atrocities of 9/11.
Bush taught us that in the pursuit of power, politics trumps principle. So you never risk alienating the part of your base that's loony and hateful -- the Ann Coulter chorus -- by publicly criticizing their xenophobia.

And the president taught us that a War on Terror can cover a lot of ground. No programs, no policies, no answers? No problem. When you're waging a War on Terror, you don't have to make sense, and you don't have to explain yourself.
Having led so well, Bush should not be at all surprised that Democrats and Republicans are trampling each other to get to the microphones to denounce the deal allowing an Arab-owned company to manage seaports in New York, Philadelphia, Miami and other cities. Isn't this Karl Rove's playbook?

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The president simply has not shown much talent for the unglamorous, roll-up-your-sleeves work of barring doors, closing loopholes and sealing off the entryways terrorists might sneak through. That sort of preventive maintenance doesn't get Rove's adrenalin racing.
What does is politicizing national security. The Bush team has frightened voters with terrorist alerts (just how many were there leading up to the 2004 elections?); they've denounced critics as co-conspirators with Osama bin Laden; they've claimed that the secular Saddam and the hyper-religious bin Laden were somehow working together. In other words, they've sown the seeds of this controversy.

Every now and then, in reflective moments, the president has been at pains to point out that the United States is not at war with the Muslim world. But he has hardly used his bully pulpit to tamp down xenophobia. He has never had a Sister Souljah moment, when he forcefully and publicly confronted the hateful, nativist elements in his party.
He has never even rooted out the bigots in his ranks. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, an outspoken Christian conservative who has ridiculed Islam as "Satan" and dismissed Muslims as idol worshippers, is still a high-ranking Pentagon official, in charge of intelligence-gathering. The president has not wanted to risk the ire of other anti-Islam fundamentalists by dumping the general.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20060227/cm_ucas/bushnowpaysthepriceforpoliticizingnationalsecurity;_ylt=A86.I2RITANEpx0BHAX9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

[fooj]

1. Wow. It's about time.

Peace.

[NoMercy]

2. More unpopular info?