The Carpetbagger Report

I'm not really trying to turn this into a political blog, but Andrew Sullivan posted this entry in his blog today - a discussion of Thomas Friedman's recent op-ed in the NY Times - and it so sums up what I think the Democratic talking points should be in this election that I wanted to repost it.

I'm also posting this on all kinds of different message boards: Bass Fishing, Plushies, Dianetics, The Perfect Turkey Sandwich, etc. The word will get out!

As Sullivan would say, the money quote (from Thomas Friedman):

Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, and let’s have an unprecedented wartime tax cut and shrink our armed forces. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but let’s send just enough troops to topple Saddam — and never control Iraq’s borders, its ammo dumps or its looters. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but rather than bring Democrats and Republicans together in a national unity war coalition, let’s use the war as a wedge issue to embarrass Democrats, frighten voters and win elections. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism — which is financed by our own oil purchases — but let’s not do one serious thing about ending our oil addiction.

Dear Democrats,

Please stop arguing about this war on the President's terms. The discussion has never been about whether or not we should fight terrorism. It's about how we should fight terrorism. So every time the Repubs try to paint this picture of you Dems being soft on this fight, laugh in their face, call their claims ridiculous, and change the subject to how we need to start fighting this war legally, responsibly, ethically, and morally.

That's the high ground. That's how you're different.

Oh yeah - and formulate a detailed plan on how exactly to fight this war legally, responsibly, ethically, and morally. That would be helpful (and, honestly, it's pretty sad you haven't done it already).

Sincerely,
Anthony King, non-political blogger