Be careful what you wish for...

[Vernon Windsor]

When New York Rep. Peter King said in an interview that president Obama should say the words terror and terrorism more, I wonder if had any idea how stupid that statement was, much less how eagerly Keith Olbermann would take him up on the offer. Be careful what you wish for.

Peter King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40vyCQnDJDo&feature=player_embedded

Keith Olbermann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zudH8Hy4yuE&feature=player_embedded

[Mark Mentzer]

Yeah, Keith's reporting on Peter King was fabulous. I think he counted around 60 times or so. Thanks for sharing.

[Vernon Windsor]

I have always suspected that the larger threat to our nation was quite possibly internal instead of external. I believe Dick and Liz Cheney are aiding and abetting the very terrorists they claim to be against by their tactics. I'm not faulting them for disagreeing with the president, only their method and its effect of the morale of Al-Qaeda

[Vernon Windsor]

A partial transcript of Mondays Rachel Maddow show...

MADDOW: All right. We begin our first show of 2010, now, with the death of a political truism that doesn‘t seem to have survived 2009. The truism is the conventional wisdom that Republicans sure know how to do terror politics. 2010 being an election year—right now, Republicans all over the country are busy waxing poetic about terrorism on campaign trails all around the country.

For example there‘s this gentleman in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN QUIST (R-MN), HOUSE CANDIDATE: I, like you, have seen that our country is being destroyed. I mean, this is—every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom. This is our fight. And this is our time.

This is it. Terrorism, yes. But that‘s not the big battle. The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals. They‘re not liberals. They‘re radicals. They are destroying our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: House candidate Allen Quist of Minnesota. Terrorism isn‘t the big battle. The big battle is between us and the liberals.

That sort of political speech right there is what it looks like when something that used to work for you stops working. Someone obviously once told that Republican congressional candidate in Minnesota, “Hey, you should campaign on terrorism. That always works out great for Republicans.”

That is the common wisdom and it might have been true at one point, but it does actually matter how you do it. And if you‘re saying things like, “I hate Democrats more than I hate al Qaeda,” I‘m pretty sure you‘re not doing it right.

Now that the calendar has flipped to 2010 we‘re experiencing a little outbreak of Republicans blowing it. Republicans blowing something they used to be pretty good at, the politicization of terrorism.

The latest is Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri. In trying to attack President Obama‘s handling of the Christmas Day underpants bomber, Mr. Bond stepped on the same rake that a number of his colleagues have already recently stepped on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: Do you think it was a mistake to charge Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant?

SEN. KIT BOND ®, MISSOURI: Clearly. As you said, in your interview, as soon as he got a lawyer, he lawyered up. We should have held him as an enemy combatant and tried him under the military commissions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: We should have held him as an enemy combatant.

After facing questions about why he thinks President Obama is wrong to try the Christmas Day bomber in federal court, when President Bush made the exact same decision about the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, back in 2002, Senator Bond, after facing those questions, decided to double-down apparently without checking his own record. The senator is now seeking to go back in time to try to create the impression that he was against the shoe bomber being charged in federal court back in 2002, now, calling it a mistake—even though Senator Bond made not one peep of protest about that at the time.

In fact, at the time, the Justice Department, the Bush Justice Department was prosecuting Richard Reid—at that time, Senator Kit Bond was asked specifically if he had any criticism of the Bush Justice Department‘s role in fighting terrorism. Senator Bond said he had none.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BOND: I believe that the Department of Justice is observing constitutional guidelines and safeguards, but they‘re going after people who come from areas of the world which might spawn terrorists, and I think that‘s appropriate.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MADDOW: In 2002, he said what the Justice Department was doing was appropriate. Now looking back on it he says, back in 2002, that was a huge mistake—huge mistake to use the Justice Department for this sort of thing. How dare Obama do this now, this thing I said at the time was appropriate?

Then there‘s Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. And after facing pressure for putting an indefinite hold on President Obama‘s nominee to run transportation security, Mr. DeMint has now, sort of, caved, saying that he‘ll allow a vote on the TSA nominee as long as he gets time to debate the nomination on the Senate floor. While caving on the TSA issue, Senator DeMint continues to embarrassing himself—embarrass himself by pressing another issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. JIM DEMINT ®, SOUTH CAROLINA: A lot of us have been concerned over the last year that the president did seem to downplay the threat of terror. He doesn‘t use the word anymore.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN: Senator DeMint, how has he downplayed the risk of terror?

DEMINT: Well, it begins with not even being willing to use the word.

The concern that a lot of us have had over the last year is we‘ve even dropped the word “terror.”

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MADDOW: You know, when you see Jim DeMint saying this sort of thing, it might be useful to remember that he‘s just making it up as he goes along. You should hear a little laugh track in your head when he does that, as evidenced by President Obama repeatedly on tape saying this word that Jim DeMint says he never says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Terror and extremism that threatens the world‘s stability.

Extremists sewing terror in pockets of the world.

Suffering and civil wars that breed instability and terror.

New acts of terror.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MADDOW: When Jim DeMint says that Barack Obama never uses the word “terror,” he‘s lying. It should probably be pointed out when that happens.

As we have noted here before the outbreak of people inexpertly trying to politicize terrorism, trying to politicize terrorism but blowing it, that effort sort of has a mascot in Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Michigan. Mr. Hoekstra is now apparently unwilling to defend his decision to raise money off of the attempted murder of 300 Americans on Christmas Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you proud of that, of fundraising off the national crisis like that?

REP. PETE HOEKSTRA ®, MICHIGAN: Well, I‘ve been leading on national security for the last nine years that I‘ve been on the intelligence committee. And over the last two to three months, I‘ve been very concerned about where this administration is taking us on national security issues, the refusal to acknowledge that the Fort Hood attack was a terrorist attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I‘m asking about raising money off the attempted murder of 300 people three days after it occurred.

HOEKSTRA: I am proud of the role that I have played in making sure that America is safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Mr. Hoekstra dodging that question not once but twice yesterday. And that‘s actually a big change from the way the Hoekstra camp had been talking about his raising money off a terrorist attack against American citizens.

Just last week, Mr. Hoekstra‘s campaign told us that Pete Hoekstra himself signed off on that fundraising letter and that we should expect more similar efforts from him. Just a few days later, Congressman Hoekstra has been forced to become embarrassed about this. Now, apparently, unwilling to defend the effort when he‘s personally called out on it.

Even as Mr. Hoekstra apparently realizes the step on the rake face plant that he has made here, trying to raise money off of the attempted murder of 300 Americans on Christmas Day, three days after it happened, even as Hoekstra finally starts to get embarrassed about that, the Republican Party seems to be following Mr. Hoekstra‘s lead.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sending out a fundraising pitch that reads in part, quote, “This country was one faulty detonator away from an American airliner being blown out of the sky. When a foreigner tries to blow up an airliner, it is an attempted terrorist attack. Will you please give $5 or $10 by midnight tomorrow so we have the money necessary to fight the Obama machine?”

The National Republican Congressional Committee also sending out its own fundraising e-mail using the specter of terrorist attacks against Americans to cash in.

Republicans are doubling down on trying to raise money off of an attempted terrorist attack. And while some are trying to win the terror debate by actively attacking President Obama publicly, others are making the strategic decision to keep quiet.

Peter Baker of “The New York Times” reported this weekend, quote, “A half-dozen former senior Bush officials involved in counterterrorism told me before the Christmas Day incident that for the most part, they were comfortable with Obama‘s policies, although they were reluctant to say so on the record. Some worried they would draw the ire of Cheney‘s circle if they did. They generally resent Obama‘s anti-Bush rhetoric and are unwilling to give him political cover by defending him.”

Republicans are supposed to be good at politicizing terrorism, yet here are four former senior Bush administration officials actually telling a reporter that there are things they think are keeping the public safe that they will not publicly support because of partisan politics. They won‘t let anyone know they support these policies they actually support and think are good for the country because they‘re afraid of Dick Cheney being mad at them. They told that to a reporter.

You know, keeping your name off that quote is not going to be enough to help your cause if you‘re willing to admit to being that craven.