I was 10 when the September 11th attacks occurred. Some of my first political memories are of George Bush standing in front of Congress and announcing, to rather thunderous applause, "either you're with us, or you're against us." Even to a 5th grader I understood that this was a threat not only to the leaders of the world, but to political opposition to Republicans in Washington.
Either you're with us, or you're against us.
When Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss ran against incumbent Democrat Max Cleland in 2002, just a year after the 9/11 attacks, he ran this despicable ad implicitly comparing Cleland to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden:
The ad exemplified the Republican messaging spree up through the Iraq War: any opposition to the Republican agenda is anti-American and pro-Al Qaeda. Anyone standing in the way of national security is a terrorist.
Fast forward to 2013.
Angry Democrats slammed that move, contending Hagel has cleared every bar on his financial disclosures and that he has nothing to do with Benghazi – and that the appearance of a headless Pentagon would only invite trouble for national security.
Nonetheless, senior Democratic aides said Thursday morning that Hagel’s nomination did not appear to have the 60 votes it needs to overcome Republican objections before a key Friday procedural vote, setting up a scenario in which the Senate might not act on Hagel until Feb. 25 at the earliest.
The Republicans are so fervently anti-Obama that they're willing to let our country go without a Secretary of Defense.
Leon Panetta, the current secretary, was supposed to have resigned his position as of noon today.
Secretary Panetta is staying in his post until the Senate confirms his successor.
The fact remains that the GOP would have willingly left our country without a leader at the Pentagon just to satisfy their orgasmic hatred of the President.
The last 13 years of rabid nationalism is a classic case of, forgive the paraphrase, "the party doth protest too much, methinks."
The Republican Party hates America. It's about time they admitted it.