Hard Ball: The Underhanded Scoring of Political Points

June 9, 2002

by Christopher G. Adamo

Few among us have been spared having to read the headlines of those tabloid papers while standing in line at the grocery store. And most are aware of how this month’s headline frequently refutes last month’s earth-shattering revelation. Elvis is alive! Yet only four weeks ago, leading "psychics" were communicating with his ghost! How can this be? Obviously, last month’s deception was intended to sell last month’s issue ... no more. Ditto for the nonsense being peddled this month. No element of consistency should be anticipated from one issue to the next.

From similar actions, those who would seek to exploit an event of such enormity as 9-11 consistently reveal more about their own unscrupulous character and moral bankruptcy than they do about any intended target of their criticism.

Consider those staunch American allies ... the Palestinians. On the very day of the attacks, they reveled and celebrated in the streets of Ramallah. Comparable sentiments were apparent throughout the Arab world, from Cairo to Baghdad. Yet among these very same people, rumors have repeatedly surfaced suggesting that it was the Israelis who actually perpetrated the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But when have the Arabs and Palestinians ever endorsed a successful Israeli military operation? In truth, neither expression was ever intended to be considered in the light of the other. Rather, each was merely the response of the moment.

Quite ominously, the threat of such duplicity from the enemies of America is not limited to hostile foreign interests. Consider the fraudulent nature of partisan Democratic accusations against the President in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, especially when compared to those of recent weeks.

On the morning of the attacks, President Bush was in Florida, reading to some elementary school children. Immediately upon receiving the news, he was whisked away on Air Force One to a secure location in Omaha, Nebraska. Rather than crediting the president for the level-headed nature of his conduct, which reflected the fact that his sense of duty outweighed any consideration of appearances, Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the media attacked his behavior as a sign of cowardice. The party of the presidential draft-dodger simply could not pass up a possible opportunity to gain political advantage.

Since that time, the president’s unfaltering popularity has rendered him virtually immune to such assaults on his character and courage. Thus, his liberal antagonists needed to change tactics. What they arrived at was a ploy to convince the American people that the president had somehow been forewarned of the impending attacks but did nothing to thwart them. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) even went so far as to claim that she could see on his face, the moment he was informed, that he already possessed foreknowledge of the event.

So, in order to take both sets of accusations seriously, it must be assumed that the president was first willing to allow the attacks for the sake of political profit, but that when they occurred, he reacted to them with fear and confusion. It is blatantly obvious that, when engaging in their slander, Democratic political hacks and liberal media operatives seek to appeal to the stupidity of some, and the forgetfulness of others. What does such an approach say about their true regard for the Democrat/liberal voting base? And what does it say about the true validity of their political agenda?

As to the suggestion that President Bush could possibly have allowed the attacks in order to better his political fortunes, it is noteworthy that among his most vocal critics is the wife of a man who could (and did) shamelessly engage in such behavior for the entirety of his eight years in office. On the floor of the United States Senate, Hillary Clinton posed the monotonously predictable question "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" If any individual in that entire body has first hand knowledge of deeds by a president which jeopardized and eventually harmed the country, perpetrated for the sake of personal gratification and political advancement, it is the junior senator from New York. Furthermore, if any member of that assembly can point a finger of blame in such a hypocritical manner, with a completely straight face, it is also Mrs. Clinton (though Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle are exemplary in their own hypocrisy).

What should ultimately be apparent here is that some individuals in high places seek personal gain, even at the expense of the country’s security. However, the overwhelming majority of those who resort to such tactics reside on the same side of the aisle as do the former President and First Lady.

This past week, former President Bill Clinton displayed, once again, his own willingness to exploit a situation in pursuit of his own interests. In the latest of a long parade of politically correct "justifications" for the terrorist attacks of last September, Bill Clinton has now sought to blame global warming as a contributing factor to the rise in terrorism. Previously he claimed that "poverty" causes terrorism. It is amazing that people of his mindset, who are completely unwilling to support and equip the military in a manner which could make it an effective means of combating the terrorist threat, will nevertheless seek to economically cripple the nation in order to implement their socialist agenda.

President Bush had better reaffirm that it was terrorists, not the FBI, nor medieval crusaders, nor Enron executives, who committed the mass murder of Americans last September. Otherwise, the venom of Democratic partisanship may succeed in undermining his entire effort to reestablish America’s security.

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Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming with his wife and sons. He has been involved in grassroots political activity for many years. Chris was the editor of the Wyoming Christian from 1994 to 1996, and his columns can also been seen at CheyenneNetwork.com.

Send the author an E mail at Adamo@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Christopher's articles, visit his archives.