THE CUT-AND-RUN PARTY

BILL FRIST


Never rains but it pours; at least, that seems to be the case for Republicans these days. A brief recap - the Foley mess and subsequent coverup controversy that may actually lead to the resignation of House Speaker Denny Hastert; the fact that Condi Rice was briefed by George Tenet about the looming threat of al Qaeda on July 10, 2001, yet she failed to mention this under oath in front of the 9/11 Commission and it adds credence to the notion that the Bush administration didn't spend enough time on terror issues pre-9/11; the possibility that the GOP might lose control of either one or both houses of Congress. And now this; sit down because it's a doozy: Bill Frist thinks it would be a good idea to allow the Taliban back and incorporate them into the fledging Afghan government. Everyone remembers the Taliban, right? They're the guys who actually "provided aid and comfort" to the fellas who flew a couple of planes into American buildings and killed 3000 people on 9/11. Yeah, that's right! The Taliban is the government the so-called coalition of the willing overthrew back in 2001. And now Frist thinks it's a good idea to let the come on back. From the International Herald Tribune (h/t Daily Kos):

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.

The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.

Amazingly, this guy is the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate and a presidential hopeful in 2008. For the so-called Party of National Security, this sounds an awful lot like cutting and running. This right here could win the Democrats both houses of Congress. For years we Dems have been calling bullshit on their national security credentials. Bill Frist has gone and made our case for us. We could not ask for a bigger gift. Honestly, from a political standpoint, this could not have been a better couple of days for the Democrats. The talking points alone have made it all worth it. Everytime a Dem appears on television, they should start each interview with a recitation like, "Well, the GOP wants to cut and run in Afghanistan and surrender to the Taliban; the GOP protects and enables sexual predators; the GOP has a pre-9/11 mindset; the GOP is soft on fighting the real war on terror." I could go on, but I get the feeling that the GOP will do something else even stupider in the next day or so that will make these problems look like molehills to the coming mountain.