Back In The News

The story of the Bush administration's appalling negilgence toward Homeland Security in general (and the DHS in particular) is back in the news--only 2 and 3/4 years after Jonathan Chait first wrote the break-through article on it. To readers of this blog (or any credible center-left source, like The New Republic), there isn't anything wildly new. Bush opposed the DHS, blocked key Homeland Security initiatives, wielded the issue like a partisan club, etc. etc.. Still, at this point I'm just thrilled they're paying attention at all.

Kevin Drum remarks:

One of the worst results of all this is that because George Bush treats terrorism mostly as a handy partisan club to make Democrats look weak and cement his own support with his corporate base, he's managed to convince a lot of liberals that the whole thing is just a game. Unfortunately, this is pretty understandable. At this point, I don't really blame liberals for feeling that terrorism is little more than a Republican bogeyman that's pulled out whenever the president's poll numbers are down. After all, that's pretty much how Republicans treat it.

But it's not. Osama bin Laden really would like to find a way to kill a whole bunch of us, and we really should all be working to keep that from happening. Maybe someday Karl Rove will figure out that that's more important than bringing back the glory days of William McKinley and his 30-year Republican reign.

Yes, yes, and more yes.

Matt Yglesias also responds.