Treason, She Wrote

Treason, She Wrote
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor

January 6, 2004

"The Heretical Housewife"

Managing Editor Jennifer King Imagine, if you will, that it is November 1943. The United States is involved in a bitter and protracted war, struggling mightily to restrain the evil forces which mortally threaten us. The famed Casablanca conference was held earlier in the year, when Winston Churchill and FDR had mapped out a strategy to save the free world. Allied forces had prevailed at Tunisia in May, and had invaded Sicily in July. In the Central Pacific, Operation Cartwheel was launched. In November 1943, the Allies landed on Bougainville. In November, the Japanese fleet was sunk in Truk Lagoon - a delayed payback for Pearl Harbor. On November 20th, the island of Tarawa was invaded - more than 3,000 Marines were killed and the combat pictures of dead Marines on the beach had the public in an uproar. Yet, the United States stayed united. We understood that our world and our future was at stake. We were willing to pay the price, because defeat would be inconceivable.

Now, imagine that while all this is going on, a United States Senator decided to pay a visit to recently liberated Tunisia. Imagine that this same senator decided to meet with recently victorious troops. And imagine the Senator saying this, “..support for the war is fading”, “the Administration is failing” and “the outcome is not assured”. Difficult, impossible to imagine because in 1943 all Americans understood that we faced a great evil which must be overcome. Together.

Today we are at war again. The situation is quite different from 1941, even though the circumstances which led us into war are eerily the same. In 1941, all Americans knew the risks and comprehended that we could no longer ignore the menace growing on the Continent and in the Pacific. We could be isolationist no more. The war had come to us, our burden and our duty were now clear.

Today, it’s a different story. Perhaps Victor Davis Hanson is correct, when he argues that years of multiculturalism and moral relativism have taken their toll upon the American Left. Surely, they do not appear to have grasped the grave danger posed by Islamofascism. Numerous instances abound. The Wall Street Journal published a series of memos from Senator Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) offices which showed - in true smoking gun fashion - the Democratic Party’s complete obeisance toward the radical special interest groups that rule it. The memos spell out exactly how/what/when/where and why the President’s judicial nominees must be stonewalled. Miguel Estrada is “especially dangerous” because “he is Latino” (and conservative, left notably unsaid). A judgeship which might have affected the Michigan Law School affirmative action case is delayed because the new judge would be able to “review the case and vote on it” - presumably against. A memo, addressed to Senator Durbin (D-IL) and dated from November of 2001 argues against filibustering nominees until the following year when “presumably, the public will be more tolerant of partisan dissent.”

So, a month and a half after September 11th, the greatest attack ever launched on American soil, the Democrats were coldly calculating political actions on how best to thwart the President.

Memogate has somewhat successfully been turned into Staffergate, with the mainstream media far more interested in how the memos were leaked than in their explosive contents. Yet the memos are astounding because they prove, beyond a doubt, that the Democrats are deliberately stonewalling and obfuscating for purely political reasons. And that September 11th appears to have affected them not.

This partisan bickering lifted to new heights with the news of Bush’s Thanksgiving trip to the troops in Baghdad. The video was exuberant - President Bush striding in to a swelling chorus of hearty cheers, troops jumping up on their chairs in order to get a better view, grinning soldiers being served by the President himself. Bush was obviously happy to be there and the enthusiasm of the troops was infectious. Bush’s decision to go to hot zone Baghdad was personally gutsy and it was the right thing to do. The Left was typically churlish in return. Besides Hillary’s sniping, the New York Times sniveled because they hadn’t been invited. On CNN, Howard Kurtz lamented the secrecy surrounding the trip, as though the media wouldn’t have satellite phoned every reporter in the region immediately upon finding out.

Years of questioning America’s validity have taken their toll on the media soul. It is almost a given that - on any issue - they will dive headfirst onto the Blame America bandwagon. As pundit William A. Mayer has written, if they’d been there in 1944 the headlines would have read, “Tragic French Offensive Stalled on Beaches, Thousands Dead.” Except we would have called it treason, then. ***

Photo of Jennifer King courtesy of staff files