Strategies

Republicans Hit Dems on Terror

Attack Obama over airplane bombing.

Republicans have wasted no time in attacking President Obama and Democrats over the intelligence and screening failures that led to the failed Christmas Day bombing on a Detroit-bound flight. “In the past six weeks, you’ve had the Fort Hood attack, the D.C. Five and now the attempted attack on the plane in Detroit … and they all underscored the clear philosophical difference between the administration and us,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Senator Jim DeMint meanwhile—whose hold on the White House’s nominee for the head of TSA meant the airline-safety organization was without a head when the attack was attempted—is also attacking Obama. “[S]oft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo, these things are not going to appease the terrorists,” he said. “They’re going to keep coming after us, and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security.”