Democrat “infamy”

My 5-year old son asked from the back seat what that word, infamy, meant that he heard on the car radio, as I was listening to President Roosevelt say December 7 was a day that would live in infamy.

I stumbled and mumbled, so as soon as we got home, I pulled out the dictionary for a definition of infamy: “shameful notoriety.” I told Jason infamy is something done that one should be ashamed of and many see.

I think the Democrats have achieved their infamy.

When even the Washington Post highlights their sorry contradictions, “shameful notoriety” fits. In headlining “Democrats Fear Backlash at Polls for Antiwar Remarks,” the Washington Post says that “most Democratic legislators are slowly coalescing around a political plan….fix public attention mostly on Bush’s policies rather than details of a Democratic alternative.”

Later in the day, following a closed-door meeting of House Democrats to “coalesce”, the Associated Press reported, “Democrats emerged from the meeting - held just before President Bush gave a speech defending his Iraq policies - without having coalesced around one plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.” In the double-speak that characterizes Democrat’s confused and vacuous thinking, “Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who is seeking a more moderate approach based on conditions in Iraq, dismissed the idea that House Democrats are divided on Iraq. "We are not split. The American people want us to have a strategic redeployment out of Iraq," she said. "The president doesn't have that plan. Our answer is change the course." That’s from Democrats without a plan, with “strategic redeployment” being Orwellian-style wording for cut and run, and without regard for the consequences for Iraqis, the MidEast, or U.S. and world security.

When even the New York Times editorialists recognize that Hillary Clinton is “in Pander Mode”, “shameful notoriety” comes to mind.

Of course, Hillary’s pandering to criminalize flag burning as a civil rights offense, rather than an offense against our proudest symbol, is topped by the New York Times’ editorialists dismissing flag burning as having “no history of being directed against any target but the government.” America and all it stands for is insignificant to the New York Times, another of the “shameful notoriety” for which the New York Times’ editorial page has become noted.

Meanwhile, across town, President Bush delivered the second of his major take back the podium speeches on Iraq, at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Commemorating Pearl Harbor: “Our nation pulled together – and despite setbacks and battlefield defeats, we did not waver in freedom’s cause….On September 11th, 2001, our nation awoke to another sudden attack. In the space of just 102 minutes, more Americans were killed than we lost at Pearl Harbor….Like earlier struggles for freedom, this war will take many turns, and the enemy must be defeated on every battlefront…”

President Bush recapped key points of military strategy from his speech last week, and moved on to the economic reconstruction of Iraq. Bush focused on a key element of building a responsible democracy, and didn’t shy from the facts: “Corruption is a problem at both the national and local levels of the Iraqi government. We will not tolerate fraud – so our embassy in Baghdad is helping demand transparency and accountability for the money being invested in reconstruction.”

The purpose is “helping the new Iraq government reverse decades of economic destruction, reinvigorate its economy, and make responsible reforms.” We’ve moved from large to small-scale “local projects that could deliver rapid, noticeable improvements, and offer an alternative to the destructive vision of the terrorists….Iraqis are beginning to see that a free life will be a better life.” Many details are in the speech, for those who care to listen, even among the Democrats. (Iraq is a California-size and populated state, with natural and human-talent riches. We're not doing too well in California's governance these days, but despite Hollywood we're not withdrawing.)

Next week’s presidential speech will focus on political aspects of the U.S. strategy for victory, as the Iraqis go to the polls to elect their government in free elections on December 15.

The public opinion polls are turning back toward the president’s way to win and away from the Democrats’ harp-and-destroy strategy. Democrats’ “shameful notoriety” is being increasingly recognized as infamous, and as over Vietnam will be long seen as such for a generation to come.