Bush to Dems: 'We are at War'

By Rick Moran

It seems incredible that the President of the United States should have to remind the opposition, but Bush's words yesterday at the Heritage Foundation were designed to do just that:

Bush accused Congress of stalling important pieces of the fight to prevent new terrorist attacks by: dragging out and possibly jeopardizing confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, a key part of his national security team; failing to act on a bill governing eavesdropping on terrorist suspects; and moving too slowly to approve spending measures for the Iraq war, Pentagon and veterans programs.

"Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war," Bush said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation. "This is no time for Congress to weaken the Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader. ... It's no time for Congress to weaken our ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight al-Qaida terrorists and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The President added that the Democrats were reminescent of those in the 1930's who ignored the threat from Hitler.

The President seems to have taken the gloves off in recent days, criticizing the Democratic Congress for dragging its feet on the Mukasey nomination and the Terrorist Surveillance Bill. Now he has upped the ante by accusing them of being soft on the war.

The reason Democrats don't like talk like this is because it works. In this respect, the American people are much smarter than the Democrats who see their foot dragging as obstructionism in a time of war.

Whether that will translate into anger at the polls is an entirely different story but one the Democrats probably aren't willing to peek at the ending.