Howard the Donkey Wants to Campaign on National Defense

In a speech which read like something out of Karl Rove's best-ever dream, Howard Dean wants Dems to campaign this fall on national defense:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean accused President Bush last night of being weak on national defense and absent in the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

In remarks at San Diego State University, Dean urged activists to fan across the nation – including deep into the heart of Republican-rich “red” states – to tell voters that Bush has failed as president – including in national defense, which Republicans tout as their core strength.

“There are a lot of things we can say when we knock on the door (of voters),” Dean told hundreds at San Diego State's Open Air Theatre.

“You know, people say the Republicans are tough on defense. How can you be tough on defense if five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large, the Iranians are about to get nuclear weapons, North Korea's quadrupled their nuclear weapons stash. . . .

“Explain to me how it is that this president is tough on defense? I think this president is weak on defense and he's hurt America because he hasn't done the right thing,” Dean said.

Where do you start with this? Of course Howard totally ignores the way North Korea completely snookered the Clinton Administration, which made their increased weapons production possible in the first place. The fact that bin Laden is still in a cave somewhere is almost irrelevant to the war on terror these days. Does Howie think that if we caught him the war would be over? He probably does.

And how does the Donkey suggest we handle Iran? Read the article and see if you find any solutions in Howie's remarks.

As far as the escalating violence between Israel and their local terrorists, the smartest thing Bush could do right now is stay the heck out of the way and let Israel finish cleaning out the swamp over there. The last thing the world needs is for the U.S. to try and stop the fighting before the terrorists stop their dying.

Hezbollah and Hamas, through their own stupidity, have handed Israel a golden opportunity to do a little urban and suburban renewal and take out the terrorist headquarters, camps and key people. Leave them alone and let them finish the job.

And what does Dean suggest would have happened had Al Gore or John Kerry been in office?

“If you think what's going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn't, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn't get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

Moral authority and Bill Clinton in the same sentence? Dean needs to go into comedy. As far as bringing together the Israelis and Palestinians, how has that worked out? Is the area any more peaceful today than it was back during the intifada days of Clinton? Not hardly.

Dean makes the typical Dem mistake of believing that you can negotiate with terrorists, and if that's the message he wants to take to the voters in November, good luck with all that. By the way, Howie, you better call San Fran Nan and Harry Reid and tell them that they won't need to be picking new furniture for the Speaker and Majority Leader's offices after all.