Investor's Business Daily, April 25th, 2007
National Security: Democratic presidential candidates think Rudolph Giuliani has some nerve saying the U.S. will suffer another 9/11 if one of them is elected. In reality, he touched a nerve by merely stating a fact.
According to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, former New York City Mayor Giuliani took "the politics of fear to a new low." Sen. Hillary Clinton, Democrat from New York, reacted to Giuliani with a statement saying "political rhetoric won't do anything to quell" terrorist threats.
But it is the Democrats who are long on political rhetoric, and it is a Republican president who has quelled fear in America by keeping us safe for five and a half years.
Obama provided cliches about how "we should focus on strengthening our intelligence, working with local authorities." Clinton's rhetoric includes the accusation that "the president failed to keep this country unified after 9/11." According to the former First Lady, "The plain truth is that this administration has done too little to protect our ports, make our mass transit safer and protect our cities."
But the Bush administration has protected our cities, our trains and buses, and our ports. And it has done it by "strengthening our intelligence" and "working with local authorities" through policies Democrats claim to be unconstitutional, and for which they would like to see President Bush impeached.
As Giuliani said, "If one of them gets elected, it sounds to me like we're going on the defense." He appropriately ridiculed their timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
"We're going to wave the white flag there. We're going to try to cut back on the Patriot Act. We're going to cut back on electronic surveillance. We're going to cut back on interrogation. We're going to cut back, cut back, cut back, and we'll be back in our pre-September 11 mentality of being on defense."
Having a perfect record protecting the homeland since 9/11 did not happen by magic, nor did it happen by being satisfied with the pre-9/11 status quo.
Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 -- in words remarkable to remember today -- the president addressed a joint session of Congress:
"It is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror," the president reflected.
But he promised that "as long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror."
Contrary to what many, if not most of us, expected, the last five and a half years have indeed not been an age of terror for Americans, as the president promised it would not be -- because he did things he really did not have to do if he had been thinking only of his own political fortunes.
The president stuck his neck out, ordering the National Security Agency to monitor terrorist communications without having to wait endless months for warrants. And in a brilliant stroke of innovation, he convinced countries in Eastern Europe and elsewhere to allow the CIA to set up prisons where tough interrogation methods could be used on terrorists.
This aggressive surveillance and effective interrogation have been key in foiling numerous terrorist plots.
The president knew in ordering such policies, which have saved hundreds, maybe thousands of American lives, there would be Democrats who would want to impeach him for it. Clinton, Obama and most of their fellow Democratic leaders consider those measures to be presidential abuses of power. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has accused Bush of "illegal spying on Americans." He is just one of an array of Democratic committee heads in both the Senate and House committed to digging and digging until they find something that might lead to an impeachment trial.
In stating that "the Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us," Giuliani certainly has made a lot of them mad.
But as Al Gore might say, that usually happens when you mention an inconvenient truth.
