I came upon
this on Yahoo this afternoon:
The Republican national chairman created a furor this week when he suggested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is too "angry" to win the White House in 2008. And to hear Republicans tell it, Clinton is just one of many Democrats with an anger management problem.
Former Vice President Al Gore is angry. So is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. The party is held hostage by the "angry left."
In recent months, GOP operatives and officeholders have cast the Democrats as the anger party, long on emotion and short on ideas. Analysts say the strategy has been effective, trivializing Democrats' differences with the GOP as temperamental rather than substantive.
However are we to counter such a thing? Well, as I did once before, I suggest we start agreeing with the Republicans. Immediately.
Here is one form I think that agreement should take, whether it is presented as a speech, an ad campaign, talking points, or whatever:
The Republicans have accused us of being angry. And you know what? They are right.
When a president ignores repeated detailed warnings of an impending terrorist attack on American soil, and 3000 innocent people die as a result, that makes me angry.
When a president lets the lunatic who is behind that attack escape our troops because he'd rather divert them to a country that posed no threat to us, that makes me angry.
When a president lies to the nation because he wants to start a war, that makes me angry.
When an administration attacks a man's wife because that man had the gall to tell the truth to the American people, that makes me angry.
When a Republican-run Defense Department tells a seriously wounded soldier he has to reimburse them for damaged body armor, that makes me angry. When a Republican-run Defense Department can't be bothered to provide adequate armor for our soldiers and their vehicles, that makes me angry. When Republicans in Congress vote to cut health benefits for our soldiers, that makes me angry. When our seriously wounded soldiers are charged for their meals while they are in the hospital, that makes me angry.
When a political party sells out our senior citizens to the pharmaceutical conglomerates with phoney Medicare reform, that makes me angry.
When a political party lets lobbyists write the laws, that makes me angry.
When a president takes a budget surplus and replaces it with the largest deficit in our nation's history, that makes me angry.
When a president endorses superstition and attacks science, that makes me angry.
When a president endorses torture and violates longstanding international treaties, that makes me angry. When a president turns this nation from an object of respect of all the nations of the world, and into an object of mistrust and suspicion, that makes me angry.
When a president refuses to do anything -- anything at all -- to make our ports, our chemical plants, and our nuclear facilities safe from possible terrorist attack, that makes me angry.
When a president declares outright that he and he alone will decide which laws apply to him, that makes me angry. When a president brags that he has violated the law and will continue to do so, that makes me angry. When a president spies on his political opponents simply because they oppose him, that makes me angry. When a president represents only those Americans who voted for him or contributed to his campaigns, and no other, that makes me angry.
So yes, Tim [or Wolf, or Larry, or Cokie] you bet your ass I am angry. I am mad as hell at the damage that this president and the Republican party have done to our Constitution, our nation, our treasury, our citizens, and our children. The American people are also angry. And on their behalf, I would very much like to know why you think so little of the United States of America that these things do not make you at least as angry as we are.
We cannot be intimidated by these people. It is they, not we, who have done a level of harm to our country that two centuries of our enemies could have only dreamed of. We cannot be defensive about our well-justified rage. Our views are the views of the majority of the people of this country. That is not something from which we need to hide.
Feel free to add to the list. I just know I overlooked something...