DEMS: BRING IT ON
U.S. NEEDS SECURITY VOTE
John Podhoretz
NEW YORK POST
Opinion
August 18, 2006
THOSE of us who take a very hard line on the war against Islamic fascism have reason to be grateful this week for the outspoken actions of some politicians and judges whose views we might normally condemn.
In Detroit, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the administration's terror-hunting wiretap program is unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violates both the First and Fourth Amendments. The decision is particularly striking coming only a week after the bust-up of the British plane plot, which was found out in part due to electronic intercepts.
Judge Taylor's ruling ensures that the means by which the U.S. government is fighting the War on Terror within its own borders will remain a central topic in this election season. Has the administration gone too far? Has it arrogated powers to itself that it does not properly possess? And if so, what might the result be of the policy's abandonment?
At the same time, Democrats are beginning to argue hotly that events like the London plane plot indicate the Bush administration has failed to fight the War on Terror effectively - that it has not been tough enough or effective enough. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a video on Monday asking the key question: "Feel safer? Vote for change."
The footage has since vanished down the campaign committee's memory hole after Hispanic activists complained about images of illegal immigrants appearing in proximity to Osama bin Laden, but still this video offers a newly aggressive effort to challenge the president and the GOP on what has historically been their strongest turf.
What they are doing is noble, even if their motives probably aren't. Some poll data suggest the president and the GOP are genuinely vulnerable for the first time when it comes to fighting terror, and that's why Democrats are getting aggressive. There's been nearly a 20-point shift in the direction of the Democrats when it comes to fighting terrorism in the polls compared to two years ago. Bush and the Republicans still lead, but not by the overwhelming margin they once did.
If Democrats can neutralize this Republican advantage, there won't be much to stop them from taking power in Washington in November.
Nonetheless, their opportunism is going to have salutary consequences for the body politic. This country needs to have an open debate about the War on Terror right now - right this second - and this country will benefit from the Democratic Party taking a serious look at his its own confused stand on the matter.
If Democrats are going to take control of the House and Senate in November, they will have the power to change policies they think aren't working. So what policies are those, exactly?
Will they overhaul the Patriot Act, for example, which Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid once gleefully said he and his colleagues had "killed"?
Will they agree with Judge Taylor and others that the warrantless wiretap program is unconstitutional? Some do, others have not taken a firm position on the matter. Will they accept a central contention of the decision - that the wiretaps in question violate a completely undefined standard of "reasonableness" and that therefore they are "obviously in violation of the Fourth Amendment" prohibition against illegal search and seizure?
We know that they claim the administration has not done enough to secure ports. Right now America has the means to search something like 9 percent of the nation's ship-borne cargo, due to budget increases in the billions over the past few years. How exactly will Democrats increase that number?
These are the substantive matters that Democrats are choosing to address by challenging the GOP's preeminence on fighting terrorism. To do so, they will talk tough. By talking tough, they will push their own party to a more serious stance on these matters than it has been taking over the past couple of years.
And for that, we can all be thankful.
jpodhoretz@gmail.com
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