A Speech Too Far

by digby

I am seeing some Bush skepticism today on the news as CNN sends Anderson Cooper (looking fabulous in prada, as always) to Afghanistan under the heading “The Forgotten War.” They are talking a lot about the resurgence of The Taliban. Most interestingly, the news today is all about how the president exploited 9/11 politically. I think it’s far batter to have the press discussing that than drooling over the Codpiece as they have in the past.

The crawl on CNN says:

Dems: Pres. used 9/11 to defend Iraq war, score political points
Republicans fire back: Accuse Dems of being soft on terror

Normally I would see that as a win for the Republicans, but the media is having none of it today. Here is how the story is encapsulated on CNN right now:

• Democrats say President Bush used 9/11 address for political attacks
• White House says speech was not meant to be partisan
• House GOP leader questions Democrats’ interest in fighting terrorism
• With elections near, both parties try to gain upper hand on terrorism issue

Pelosi deftly pivoted from criticism of exploiting 9/11 to Iraq:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, also denounced Bush’s speech, citing a Senate Intelligence Committee report released last week that said that the CIA had dismissed ties between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

“In fact, the war in Iraq has made our effort to defeat terrorism and terrorists more difficult,” Pelosi said in a written statement. “Last night’s speech demonstrated that the president will go to any lengths to distract attention from his failures in Iraq, which have diverted focus from the war on terrorism.”

Wolf Blitzer just did his lead-in with “more on the presidents speech and the political fallout.”

Media Matters points out that the Washington Post and the NY Times both initially portrayed this as Democrats stoking partisanship. But watching television today, that interpretation doesn’t seem to have taken. The cable news outlets are talking about whether the president is too partisan.

I would rather we be talking about Bush’s failures, but considering the fact that Bush just had the microphone for a solid week, this isn’t a bad transition into the campaign. The wingnuts are sounding more than a little bit shrill:

When asked about the Democrat’s response to the president’s speech, House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said “if you listen to the Democrats, [you] have to wonder if they’re more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.

Here’s how the press reacted to that in this morning’s press conference with Tony Snow:

QUESTION: Last night, the president asked Democrats and Republicans to put aside differences in the war on terrorism, and I wanted to see how you think that’s going a day later when…

(LAUGHTER)

… Harry Reid accuses the president of playing election year politics and House Majority Leader Boehner says of Democrats, “I wonder if they’re more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people. They certainly don’t want to take the terrorists on and defeat them.”

SNOW: Apparently there are differing points of view.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Do you leave at that? You don’t think it’s anything more?

So did the president fail in this mission?

SNOW: No, I don’t think so, because on broader — it’s interesting. We’re going to have a lot of political conflict this year. Perfectly understandable, acceptable, predictable. That’s the way it works.

But yesterday gave the American people a chance to reflect on September 11th and how it froze us in an instant … [blah, blah, blah]

So, no, I think Americans are united on the important things. And they also understand that in politics there will be a vigorous debate about how best to pursue the goal.

But I don’t think there’s any disagreement that ultimately our freedoms are precious and that this country is an extraordinary place that remains not only the beacon of the world but the envy of many, and that it is our responsibility to preserve that for this and every future generation.

And Americans also understand political seasons.

QUESTION: Do you think both sides, Democrats and Republicans, want to defeat the terrorists?

SNOW: I do. I mean, I think — I don’t think…

(CROSSTALK)

SNOW: I’m not going to get in a debate over statements that I haven’t seen.

I think that there are going to be plenty of debates about who’s going to be more effective in waging that battle. But, you know, I’ll let John Boehner and Harry Reid duke it out on their own. I’ll speak for the president.

QUESTION: As you well know, this is not a campaign season about whether America is a great place or not, right? I mean, it’s a lot more substantive than that and it has to do with the path that this president took the country after 9/11.

Now, when a Republican leader of Congress says, “I wonder if Democrats are more interested in protecting terrorists than they are in protecting the American people,” as a spokesman for the president, do you think it’s your duty to say that that’s out of bounds or not?

SNOW: Frankly, again, this is one of these things — I haven’t even seen the Boehner statement. But let me make a larger point. When people call the president a liar or a loser, that happens. There have been all sorts of names and smears aimed at the president. And he understands that he’s a big enough boy to deal with that.

The other thing is that in this present political season, unfortunately, there will be a lot of — there will be some name calling.

You know what? I think you and I agree. Let’s figure out what the substantive issues are, let’s get past the name calling and let’s get down to it and let’s talk about it.

QUESTION: This is important because, as a matter of fact, the vice president said over the weekend to Tim Russert that, “The sort of debate we’re having in this country about withdrawing troops from Iraq emboldens the terrorists.” Now you have a Republican leader of Congress saying the Democrats may be “more interested in protecting terrorists than the American people.”

Does the president agree with that?

SNOW: The president — what you’ve done is you’ve taken two things. Let’s focus on what the vice president said, which is that withdrawal from Iraq would embolden the terrorists.

I think it’s true. Osama bin Laden has made it clear. And one of the things he says is if the United States is pushed from Iraq, it will be to the eternal humiliation of the United States.

So it is clear that from the standpoint of bin Laden, who, in the past — and you quite kindly corrected me on the misstatement back in August when I got it wrong — bin Laden drew the conclusion when we left Somalia that the Americans didn’t have what it took to stick it out.

See, that’s the way the enemy’s looking at this.

Now, so, as an objective statement about the way in which bin Laden views the United States, that is a true statement.

I’m not going to get into trying to characterize what John Boehner said.

QUESTION: You certainly would get into, if someone accused the president of being a liar, do you want to let a statement like this stand from a Republican leader?.

SNOW: Like I said, you’re presenting me with a statement I haven’t seen. I’ll tell you what, I’ll get back to you on it.

QUESTION: It’s been out there for a couple of hours. I think you had ample time to see it.

Let me ask you this final point. Can you describe how it’s possible to oppose the president on the war on Iraq without emboldening the terrorists?

SNOW: There are probably — yes, absolutely, there are ways to do it. But also, if you say, “We need to leave right now with no preconditions” — and I’m not sure anybody says that, but I’ll give you a hypothetical — that would embolden the terrorists.

If the end result was that we left Iraq and we did not have an Iraq that was able to sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself, that would embolden the terrorists.

If the terrorists have the ability — if the terrorists draw the conclusion that they can use political means — because they can’t defeat us militarily, so it has to be a political battle — if they can use political means to drive us from Iraq and make Iraq a place from which, like Afghanistan before, they can mount terrorist attacks and set up their own headquarters and this time have in addition oil as a weapon, then that, in fact, is the kind of situation that we can’t let stand.

But there are ways — you can disagree over a lot of things. If you share the objective of having an Iraq — and this is what’s, kind of, interesting about the debate last night, because if you look at the president’s speech, he talks about an Iraq that’s going to be able to be democratic — I don’t know that that’s controversial with anybody — an Iraq where Iraqi forces are going to be able to defend Iraqi ground — I don’t know that that’s controversial. I think those are the things.

So to answer your question — and I’ll let you get back to this — to answer your question, it is possible to disagree. But on the other hand, if you were proposing a position that says to bin Laden, in effect, “Iraq is yours,” then that is not the kind of thing that I think is going to lead to victory.

QUESTION: Do Democrats want to protect terrorists more than the American people? What do you think?

SNOW: Again, you know, I know you think that in the last hour — I had an hour to prepare, because we had long meetings…

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) question. Forget about what John Boehner said. I’m putting the proposition to you. Do you have an opinion on that topic?

SNOW: Do I think — no, I think…

QUESTION: Democrats are more interested in protecting terrorists than the American people?

SNOW: No.

Big of him, don’t you think?

I think Bush’s speech is blowing back on him.

Update: I see Josh Marshall thinks this is a Democratic screw-up. Normally I might agree. But this time the white house made the mistake of selling that speech as being non-partisan to the press and the press is (surprisingly)leaping on it. The Dems are using this controversy about abusing the sacred 9/11 to pivot to Iraq. This is one case where I think phony sanctimony may have worked to change the subject and the Republicans overreacted.

One thing we know for sure: the 9/11 pageant is over.

Update II: Newsweek puts it this way:

Sept. 12, 2006 – The White House promised a non-political speech. Bush’s aides said the president’s address to the nation would exploit no partisan differences, and issue no calls to Congress. In technical terms, they were right. To all intents and purposes, they were wrong.

Sure, President Bush avoided the words Democrat and Republican. And there were no exhortations for legislation. But if that’s the definition of political, then there’s little that qualifies outside a 30-second TV ad and a State of the Union speech. Instead, the 9-11 anniversary speech carried all the hallmarks of politics as honed and polished by President Bush in the 12 years he has held public office.

The most important hallmark is a passive-aggressive strategy-to land a punch without looking like you’re in a fight. So Bush took the high road of patriotism, as he called for Democrats to stop opposing his policies in Iraq and elsewhere. “Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country,” Bush said, “and we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us.”

Nothing in his speech, and nothing outside it, suggests that President Bush is ready to meet his critics half-way in setting aside their differences. In the president’s view, the people playing politics-and dividing the nation-are those who oppose his approach. That may not be explicitly partisan politics, but it is political debate dressed up in patriotic clothes.

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