Lexington Herald Leader Editorial Takes Aim At Mitch McConnell, Accuses Him Of "Scoring Points With Hypocrisy". What Say Ye?
Scoring points with hypocrisy
In his zeal to trash the Obama administration, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is politicizing national security and taking aim at a surprising target: the FBI.
During a couple of television interviews last week, McConnell said that talk show host Larry King would have done a better job than the FBI of interrogating Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, the Christmas bomber who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with explosives hidden in his underwear.
When it turned out that the undie-bomber's prosecution is being handled exactly as the Bush administration handled terrorists arrested in the United States, and in compliance with a directive signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, McConnell said the Bush administration was wrong, too.
Funny McConnell never brought up this terrible risk to national security until a Democrat was in the White House.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid, serving a life sentence, is one of many terrorists who have been given lawyers and convicted in civilian courts.
McConnell, who says the undie-bomber should be in military custody where he could be subject to enhanced interrogation, apparently was also wrong when he said the FBI failed to get any useful information from the suspect.
Urged by relatives recruited and flown here by the FBI, the 24-year-old Nigerian is dishing about where he was trained and his al-Qaida contacts. Malaysia announced last week that it had detained 10 suspected terrorists from the Mideast and Africa who may have ties to the failed plot.
The White House leaked information about the investigation after weeks of Republican attacks, including McConnell's criticism of the FBI.
That's not the best way to handle information during an investigation, but McConnell pushed the administration and anti-terrorism agents into a corner and then criticized them for telling their side of the story.
There's nothing wrong with spirited debates about national security. But viewed uncharitably, McConnell's insistence that President Barack Obama has a "pre-9/11 mindset" and is not protecting the country from terrorist attack could be seen as giving comfort to our enemies. After all, congressional leaders have private channels for communicating sincere misgivings about security policies.
Those of us who have followed McConnell, though, understand that the war that's always uppermost in his mind is his war for power.
McConnell has shown that he will stoop to politicizing anything, even national security, if he thinks he can score points against a rival.
In his zeal to trash the Obama administration, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is politicizing national security and taking aim at a surprising target: the FBI.
During a couple of television interviews last week, McConnell said that talk show host Larry King would have done a better job than the FBI of interrogating Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, the Christmas bomber who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with explosives hidden in his underwear.
When it turned out that the undie-bomber's prosecution is being handled exactly as the Bush administration handled terrorists arrested in the United States, and in compliance with a directive signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, McConnell said the Bush administration was wrong, too.
Funny McConnell never brought up this terrible risk to national security until a Democrat was in the White House.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid, serving a life sentence, is one of many terrorists who have been given lawyers and convicted in civilian courts.
McConnell, who says the undie-bomber should be in military custody where he could be subject to enhanced interrogation, apparently was also wrong when he said the FBI failed to get any useful information from the suspect.
Urged by relatives recruited and flown here by the FBI, the 24-year-old Nigerian is dishing about where he was trained and his al-Qaida contacts. Malaysia announced last week that it had detained 10 suspected terrorists from the Mideast and Africa who may have ties to the failed plot.
The White House leaked information about the investigation after weeks of Republican attacks, including McConnell's criticism of the FBI.
That's not the best way to handle information during an investigation, but McConnell pushed the administration and anti-terrorism agents into a corner and then criticized them for telling their side of the story.
There's nothing wrong with spirited debates about national security. But viewed uncharitably, McConnell's insistence that President Barack Obama has a "pre-9/11 mindset" and is not protecting the country from terrorist attack could be seen as giving comfort to our enemies. After all, congressional leaders have private channels for communicating sincere misgivings about security policies.
Those of us who have followed McConnell, though, understand that the war that's always uppermost in his mind is his war for power.
McConnell has shown that he will stoop to politicizing anything, even national security, if he thinks he can score points against a rival.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 10:10 AM
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