Friday, August 11, 2006

A closer look at how the White House politicizes terror

Larisa Alexandrova in Huffington Post takes a look at how well-briefed the White House and the Republican message-carriers were with a unified set of talking points to fire off the instant the London terror plot hit the news. Were the Republicans so eager to muffle the coverage of Lamont's victory that they tipped their hand and forced the Brits to move early and sloppily in making arrests? Alexandrova points to White House press secretary Tony Snow's remarks that came a day before the rest of us heard about the plan to bring down transatlantic flights: Snow accused Democrats of raising "a white flag in the war on terror." Cheney had similar remarks.
Is it possible that the White House, eager to score political points with the American radical right (note, not actual Republicans, those having jumped ship eons ago), actually blew yet another classified program by yapping to reporters and talking point crafters? In my opinion, yes.

In my opinion it was despite the Bush administration that the Brits managed to still secure the alleged plotters, not as a result of White House help in the matter.

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