Fred Thompson is getting some flack for comments today:
On Friday, Thompson told reporters in Iowa that bin Laden is “more symbolism than anything else” and said his presence in the “mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan is not as important as there are probably al-Qaida operatives inside the United States of America.”
The remarks drew criticism from some Democratic rivals and later in the day, Thompson adopted a tougher line, saying bin Laden “ought to be caught and killed.”
On Monday, Thompson said he wasn’t suggesting that bin Laden’s death would happen immediately after his capture.
“No, no, no, we’ve got due process to go through” depending on the circumstances, he said. “I’m not suggesting those things happen simultaneously.”
But back in 2003, the right went after Howard Dean for saying that Bin Laden shouldn’t be “prejudged” and should be subjected to a trial to demonstrate our support for the rule of law.
Is Howard Dean only figuratively out of his mind? This AP story has me wondering: “Dean: It’s premature to convict bin Laden.” How many symptoms of utter blinking derangement can you count in the two lead sentences of the story?
Can you imagine FDR declaring he didn’t want to “pre-judge” Hitler? The comment was a parody of conservative complaints about the Democratic Party’s approach to the war on terror; they see it as a pesky law-enforcement problem.
It’s an indicator of how loony the base of Howard Dean’s support is, that he thinks it’s a winning position to treat Osama bin Laden as a common criminal who deserves a fair trial (maybe even by Europeans who have no personal stake and won’t impose a death penalty), instead of as an enemy of the United States.
Brendan Miniter in The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Bush wants bin Laden “dead or alive,” leaving clear his preference. But apparently Mr. Dean sees the war on terror not as a military imperative to chase al Qaeda members to remote corners of the world, but as a police action in which infamous terrorists are given all presumptions of innocence even while they’re still at large, presumably planning new attacks on American civilians.
And the RNC went even further in their talking points, twisting words to say Dean didn’t think that Bin Laden was guilty of his crimes:
Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) Said Osama Bin Laden Not Guilty. Dean: “I Still Have This Old-Fashioned Notion That Even With People Like Osama, Who Is Very Likely To Be Found Guilty, We Should Do Our Best Not To, In Positions Of Executive Power, Not To Prejudge Jury Trials.” (“Dean Not Ready To Pronounce Osama Bin Laden Guilty,” The Associated Press, 12/26/03)
But Fred Thompson is Reagan Reincarnated, so nevermind!
Thompson told reporters in Iowa that bin Laden is “more symbolism than anything else”
I gotta say, Hunter! is right about that. Bin Laden is symbolic of Bush’s failure as President and Republican’s failure as tough on terror.
Someone should check and see if Freddie is representing al Queda, since he gave advice to the Libyian terrorist murderers back when he was a lobbyist.