Now this is what we like to see. Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan penned an op ed today about how Republicans are politicizing the war on terror. It included the following tidbit:
Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill.He's right. And it's about time the White House hit back hard. But in the past, the White House has often gotten cold feet right after it hit Republicans hard. Here's to hoping they're relentless, and to hoping they have a larger plan for buttressing and reinforcing Brennan's comments with other surrogates. These kind of messages pack a punch, but only if delivered as part of a larger messaging strategy.
Interestingly, Brennan's comments parallel what Newsweek's Jonathan Alter said last week:
I think they're [Republicans] in a place now where they just want to hurt Obama. What they don't get - and I wish they would look into their souls a little bit - if they convey, over and over again, that the President of the United States is weak, what does that do? It emboldens the terrorists. And I don't say that lightly. Think of terrorists overseas, or at home, that might be plotting an attack - if they think that the President is weak, which he is not, he is manifestly not. He's killed twice as many of them, not to put too fine a point on it, with Predators as his predecessor did. He is not weak. But if they continue to convey that he is weak, that gives serious help to the terrorists.
I think the pressure should now be on these Republicans, aren't you helping the terrorists, by insisting, against all evidence - remember we have 100% conviction rate of terrorists in civilian courts in this country. 100%. It's not like any of them are out walking the streets, as we're told. The only detainees from Guantanamo who have been released and who have returned to terrorism in their home countries were released under President Bush. So far there has not been one case of that happening under President Obama. So, this line is a bunch of hooey, and they have to stop saying it, and the onus now has to be on them for why they're not harming us by continuing to do so.
