SAME SMEAR, NEW DAY

OLIVER NORTH


Their statements are separated by almost exactly two years. Yet the sentiment of each bridges that time as if one were a mere echo of the other.
The August 31st edition of HANNITY and colmes, featured guest was Oliver North, who wholeheartedly whipped out the GOP-approved Fear Card when he inferred that if Democrats get control of Congress in November that it would lead to a nuclear catastrophe. Excerpt courtesy of Newshounds:

If we elect a Congress in this election on November 7 that is committed to being anti-war, get out now, withdraw America, then we’re in serious, serious trouble. This could be catastrophic. That’s exactly what happened in 1974, when the Congress re-elected decided to get out of Viet Nam. But in this case, it won’t be boat people, it will be nuclear weapons in the hands of fanatics.

Sound familiar? It should. From the Washington Post, September 6, 2004:

It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind-set, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we are not really at war.

Cheney's comments made at the height of the 2004 presidential campaign no doubt had some effect on electorate. Two years hence, and I wonder if this same type of scare tactics will be as effective. The American public is clearly not in the same place as it was back then. Will this type of inflammatory and unfounded rhetoric only serve to illustrate that this adminstration (and it's dutiful mouthpieces) has nothing to run on for the midterms? In 68 days, we'll have our answer.