Bill Clinton spent eight long years sucking up to Irish Republican Army terrorists, repeatedly bringing Gerry Adams to the White House lending him respectablility and continuously touting the democratic viability of this murderous crime—fueled organization.
 
But avowed terrorists don't change that easily. They remain terrorists because their only successful means of amassing power is through violence. This was as true of Arafat holed up in Ramallah pretending to lead a democratic Palestine (while carrying on in his old ways) as it is now of the IRA.
 
In an unusually clear news analysis,  AFP reports on the disarray now engulfing the Irish Republican Army as it tries to win an upcoming election. Unable to go straight since their inclusion in the democratic process, this terrorist organization is now implicated in a huge bank robbery in Belfast and the vicious murder of a Belfast father of two. That's making the IRA's name stink with voters. Vying for power at the ballot box but sticking to old ways of terror and crime is poison to voters. And suddenly, the IRA realizes it can't have it both ways.
 
As President Bush has repeatedly told Europe, democracy withers terrorism. The example is right there with the IRA.
 
A.M. Mora y Leon 02 19 05