Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

One of the hallmarks of a Karl Rove campaign has been to attack the opponent’s stronger points and turn his client’s weaknesses into apparent strengths. Thus we saw George Bush, who still has not been able to adequately respond to the charges that he went AWOL from his National Guard Service, able to overcome John Kerry’s advantage of having served with distinction in Vietnam. Now Giuliani is trying to overcome his weakness on terrorism by repeating the phoney conservative memes about Bill Clinton:

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday accused former President Clinton of not responding forcefully enough to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or later terrorist attacks.

The former New York mayor criticized Democrats, accusing them of weakness and naivete in dealing with terrorism. Giuliani made the comments to about 650 business, corporate and political leaders at Regent University, the conservative Christian college founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

“Islamic terrorists killed more than 500 Americans before Sept. 11. Many people think the first attack on America was on Sept. 11, 2001. It was not. It was in 1993,” said the former New York mayor.

Giuliani argued that Clinton treated the World Trade Center bombing as a criminal act instead of a terrorist attack, calling it “a big mistake” that emboldened other strikes on the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, in Kenya and Tanzania and later on the USS Cole while docked in Yemen in 2000.

Giuliani ignores that fact that Clinton took action against bin Laden, often over the opposition of the Republican Congress. The Clinton administration also passed on recommendations for fighting al Qaeda, but the Bush administration ignored them. It is no coincidence that we have suffered more from terrorism under George Bush than during the Clinton years. While the Clinton administration responded to warnings to prevent the planned millenium terrorist attacks, Giuliani’s fellow Republican George Bush ignored warnings which might have prevented the 9/11 attack.

Ultimately Giuliani must try to distract from his own poor record on terrorism. Rudy’s the genius who placed New York’s emergency command center in the World Trade Center, counter to advice from Washington, after we knew it was the target of terrorist attacks. His understanding of terrorism is so weak that he actually argued with Ron Paul over a simple statement that US involvement in the middle east was a motivating factor behind the attacks. If Giuliani really believes that they attacked for no more reason than hating us for our freedoms, how can he ever do anything to solve the root causes, as even Republican Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has advised?

Giuliani has repeatedly shown he has no understanding of what it takes to defend the country against terrism. Like anyone following Karl Rove’s principles, rather than honestly addressing the problem he raises false charges against the other party. This might have worked in 2002 and 2006, but the country now sees through these tactics.