GOP Wants to Kill Dems, According to Begala

We've talked previously about the effect of the lefty blogosphere on the whole political discussion, and about the empty-headed comments of Howard the Donkey, but it seems that Howard's disease is spreading among formerly sane Democrats:

Young liberals this week flocked to the nation's capital to hear, among other things, liberal television pundit and Democrat political strategist Paul Begala accuse Republicans of wanting to kill him and his children to preserve tax cuts for the rich.

Begala was featured at the first-ever Campus Progress National Student Conference, which was designed to provide campus liberals with the tools necessary to fight the conservative movement. The event also drew former President Bill Clinton, for whom Begala once worked as an advisor.

A panel discussion entitled "Winning the War of Ideas" centered on topics discussed in the book "What's the Matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank and detailed the challenges that Democrats face in persuading voters in the American heartland and elsewhere to embrace their agenda and support their candidates.

Begala's presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had "done a p***-poor job of defending" the U.S.

Republicans, he said, "want to kill us.

"I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit" on Sept. 11, 2001. "I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me," Begala said.

"They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."

The Clinton administration's national security efforts involved the right blend of "experience" and "strength," Begala said, an assertion with which the 9/11 Commission apparently disagreed.

In its report, the bipartisan commission stated that "each president considered or authorized covert actions, a process that consumed considerable time -- especially in the Clinton administration -- and achieved little success beyond the collection of intelligence."

Begala also included Republican domestic policies in his sweeping criticism. The GOP, he said, "ain't had a new idea since they opposed Social Security, and guess what, they still do. ... They are beginning to figure out that there is no Soviet Union, but they still want Star Wars to stop it," Begala said.

"Okay, they are utterly and completely brain-dead," echoing comments earlier this year by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who accused Republicans of being "brain dead."

Here you have a former Clinton advisor speaking to a room of young skulls full of mush, and his entire argument against Republicans is that the GOP wants to kill them. The Dems have long tried that argument with seniors when it comes to saving Social Security, but this is the first time I've seen this approach used with young people. Democrats have very simply forgotten how to conduct a thoughtful political discussion. They've all drunk the angry left kool-aid (or is it kook-aid) offered by their leader, Howard Dean, and promoted by the lefty bloggers.

If this was a winning strategy, we'd be in Al Gore's second term by now and the Dems would own Congress. However, Al Gore is still a failed candidate and the GOP owns Congress and the White House. We can hope the Dems will never learn.