Shove it, Daschle

The crybaby Democrats can dish it out but, man, they can’t take it. After spending millions in New Hampshire and Iowa attacking the President, not to mention enjoying the free publicity of the debates, the Democrats have their panties in a bind over a 30-second ad by the RNC.

Power Line has the commercial in detail along with this commentary: “The Democrats' position is ludicrous on its face: they have blanketed the air waves in primary states for months with ads attacking the President's handling of the war, and now he doesn't get to defend himself? Daschle's willingness to take such a ridiculous position can only be seen as an indication of how badly the Democrats fear the national security issue will play for them next year.”

And why shouldn’t it? Here’s Tom Daschle was on “Meet the Press” yesterday:

MR. RUSSERT: At the United Nations, if the French say no, NATO—if the French, the Germans say no, if we’re not able to bring in more international forces, should the United States continue to go it alone?
SEN. DASCHLE: Well, that’s a very good question, Tim, and I think that the answer has to be we can’t allow the United States to go it alone. We have to continue the effort. We’ve got to find a way to bring about more than just a nominal commitment on the part of the international community. It is in their interest as well as ours to find a peaceful solution, to find a framework for peace and security in Iraq and in the region. So clearly, we can’t give up until we succeed. We’ve got to involve the United Nations. We’ve got to involve the international community. We have to involve our allies in Europe. That hasn’t been done to the degree we must see if we’re going to be successful.

This is what drives me insane about the Donks: they are reflexively unserious about issues that are critical to the nation’s security. Their response to this unanswerable question is that the United States, despite the trips to the United Nations and the donor conferences, simply hasn’t showed enough supplication. If only we were more “humble” surely the Europeans would help out their old buddy, the U.S.A. This is naïve, unserious, and, to be blunt, dangerous. Later in “Meet the Press,” Mary Matalin picked up on this same theme:

MR. RUSSERT: And you’ll see there “some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists,” and the word “terrorist” goes from black to red. Senator Daschle said that the president, the Republican National Committee, are attacking the patriotism of Democrats.
MS. MARY MATALIN (Republican Strategist): They’ve been saying that from the beginning. It’s a red herring. It’s because they don’t want to address the issue. There are two ways to fight global terror. You can go after the terrorists, as the president has done since 9/11, or you can do what we did before 9/11, which is treat it as a law enforcement issue in which they would just—because they don’t have a solution, they just want an issue, they throw out that patriotism business. But that ad is—we’re putting up $100,000. The Democrats have run $10 million in spots over the last six months, attacking the president in the most negative, visceral and horrible terms. They’re unprecedented in modern American politics, the things they’ve been saying about him. So he is running a spot on the debate that’s before the country—How do we want to wage this war on global terrorism?—which hadn’t been addressed before 9/11. And the result was 9/11. It’s not about their patriotism. It’s about their not having an alternative solution, just wanting to attack the president.

Extra: Ipse Dixit echoes my sentiments in "Oh Shut Up, Tom"

Double extra: Zogby Blog has more from the Daschle appearance, with similar thoughts.