Ever since the Christmas Day Thunderwear attempt the Republicans have been attacking Obama on National Security. And no one from the House Intelligence Committee or the House Homeland Security Committee has spoken a word in defense of this Administration's National Security policies.
Greg Sargent at The Plumline first noticed this yesterday. I admit, I hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to the entire matter since it was a failed attempt and the circumstances were rather buffoonish. Plus, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes people!!! Anyhoo, Greg noticed that no one had come out in defense of Obama or his handling of National Security matters:
Why aren’t Democrats backing up Obama at a time when he’s under fire from the right?
Yesterday, I posted on how conservatives like Rep. Pete Hoekstra, Rep. Pete King, and Newt Gingrich were using last Friday’s attempted bombing in Detroit as a hook to attack Obama’s approach to terrorist attacks and the campaign against Islamic extremism.
And, yet, Democrats have been silent in the face of these broadsides. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the Chairman of the House Intelliegence Committee, has been effectively AWOL from the news. Rep. Bennie Thompson and Senator Jay Rockefeller have called for investigations, but have not made any real attempt to articulate a defense of Obama’s unwillingness to escalate. No one else seems willing to step up.
And there has been a pattern of this kind of behavior from Dems. It surfaced during the primaries and hasn't stopped since he took office. What's the problem here? Are Democrats just simply scared of addressing National Security Issues? Hell, Obama has a higher rating on this issue than the economy and healthcare. Are they mad/disappointed because of Afghanistan, Healthcare, the Lincoln Bedroom?
I'm baffled here. And what's worse, Democrats have an FSM given gift in response to the criticism in the form of Jim DeMint holding up the nomination of Obama's pick for TSA Chief because he didn't answer a question to his liking Not to mention Republicans voting against TSA funding
Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure that the 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Joe Wilson.
And Greg Sargent follows up today noting that:
Are Democrats so cowed by Republican attacks on Obama’s foreign policy that they’re unwilling to defend him?
It’s now been five days since the attempted bombing of Flight 253 in Detroit, and Congressional Democrats are still turning the other cheek to Republicans who are using the incident to attack Obama’s entire approach to national security..........
But this should be even less controversial. Why are Jay Rockefeller, John Kerry, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, and other Democratic national security voices keeping quiet? What are they scared of?
Again, WTF DEMOCRATS?
If you feel like I do, call these people and ask them where their balls are:
Kerry, John F. - (D - MA)
218 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Rockefeller, John D., IV - (D - WV)
531 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6472
Sylvester Reyes
WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE
2433 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
T (202) 225-4831
F (202) 225-2016
Bennie Thompson
Washington, D.C.
2432 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5876
(202) 225-5898
Thanks for listening.
**UPDATE**
Go Read this piece by Steve Rosenthat Some prescient advice:
Step 1: Stop whining, stop bellyaching and, as former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe so eloquently put it in 2008 (quoting my mentor, the late Paul Tully), "stop bedwetting." Stop overanalyzing 2009 losses in Virginia and New Jersey, where Democrats had two candidates with serious "issues." Stop talking about needing to move to the center to win back independent voters. Stop complaining that the Obama surge voters — those younger voters, African-Americans, Latinos, single women who came out in record numbers in '08 — didn't vote in '09 and won't vote again in 2010. Start legislating, start organizing and start mobilizing.