• It was Joe Wilson's claim that Bush lied about the “16 words” that started the "Bush lied" mantra in the debate over Iraq. Democrats invested a lot in Wilson’s story of an administration so consumed by a desire for vengeance that they would sacrifice national security by outing a covert agent. Those in the media ran with Wilson’s version of the story.Thwack! Over the summer Robert Novak broke his silence about the matter revealing the information he had given the independent counsel which contradicted Wilson’s story. Later it was reported that Richard Armitage was the original leaker, not someone in the White House or a supporter of the war in Iraq. Democrats who had invested so much in the story were left looking like dupes.
• Democrats invested a lot over the past few years in their opposition to the Patriot Act and to the NSA surveillance program. Many in the liberal blogosphere, and even the Democrat congressman who would be the chairman of the judiciary committee if the Democrats retake the House, argued the case that Bush’s use of the NSA Surveillance Program and his supposed assault on civil liberties were cause for impeachment.
Thwack! In August a massive terrorist plot involving over a dozen planes was uncovered in the UK. Cited as playing a key role in the discovery was intelligence that MI5 and Scotland Yard obtained using 'sneak and peak' warrant, as well as U.S. intelligence intercepts of the group's communications.
• Democrats treated the 9/11 Commission Report as a sacred document. Information from the report was used over and over again to beat up on President Bush. Opponents of the President quoted commission findings frequently and they scored some political points.
Thwack! An ABC mini-series based on the commission report, and even blessed by commission chairman Thomas Kean, is planned to air next week on the September 11 anniversary. Clinton administration officials and liberal bloggers are outraged by the portrayal of the Democratic administration, which is based on information from the same report they loved so much to selectively quote.
• Earlier this week, to counter the upcoming speeches President Bush had scheduled to make about national security and the War on Terror, Democrats made a media blitz across the cable spectrum. Their theme was how much less safe America is after five years of George W. Bush.
Thwack! On Wednesday the President gave a speech in which he detailed information that had been collected from some of the most notorious terrorists in the world, who had been held in secret CIA prisons. He explained with specificity how that information had prevented terrorist attacks and had led to the capture of additional terrorists. He then, just two months before the mid-term elections, charged Congress with the task of passing legislation to create military commissions to try terrorists for war crimes.
Just a word of advice to those Democrats who choose to continue putting partisan politics over national security in their upcoming pre-election debate over the legislation, don’t be surprised when (either this November or in 2008) that strategy backfires with a big, loud “thwack” over the head.