WASHINGTON Aug 11, 2006 (AP)— Democrats assailed the Republicans Friday for e-mailing a fundraising appeal mentioning the war on terror hours after British authorities disclosed they had disrupted a plot to blow up aircraft headed to the United States.
There are few things more despicable and unethical than using the specter of terrorism as a means to raise funds and gain political capital, yet that appears to be exactly what the GOP has been doing in the wake of the foiled London terror plot this week. The only thing that seems to have stopped them is that they got caught. How desperate does a party have to be in order to stoop so low as to create and milk fear for political advantage? Of course, no one who has been paying attention since 9.11 should be surprised. This is what Republicans do.
This latest episode is merely another example of how the GOP goes about it’s business. No standard of common decency need apply; Republicans need money, and they need to find a way to manufacture enough abject fear to convince a majority of Americans to vote Republican in November.
Whatever it takes, man. Whatever it takes….
“In the middle of a war on terror, we need to remain focused on furthering Republican ideas more than ever before,” former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said in a letter that asked for donations to the Republican National Committee.
The RNC blamed a low-level staffer for distributing the fundraising appeal, which the party said had been scheduled for release before news of the plot broke.
Translation: Once we were busted, we got rid of as much evidence as we could so we could blame it on “someone who should have known better.”
“Once the RNC learned of this error we ceased distribution of the e-mail,” said Tracey Schmitt, a party spokeswoman.
Translation: Once we determined that this could be politically embarrassing, we changed tack so we blame it on a honest mistake.
Democrats didn’t accept the explanation.
Nor should they have. This tactic is perfectly in sync with the usual GOP modus operandi, in which nothing is out of bounds or off-limits if it can be used to political advantage and/or for fundraising purposes. The only thing that makes this scenario any different is that Democrats called Republicans on their misconduct.
With the GOP being in such generally miserable shape heading into the midterm elections (lies, corruption, and deceit will eventually have that effect on a party), no one should feign surprise that Republicans are using any and every opportunity to strike fear into the hearts of the American sheeple.
“The defeat of the London plot is a warning that we should redouble our efforts to defeat terrorism. It shouldn’t be used as a political defibrillator by Republicans on electoral life support,” said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee.
Why not just call it like it is? Republicans should not be using terrorism as a means of generating fear in an effort to prop up their sagging political fortunes. This is both unreasonable and immoral…but then again it’s fairly typical of Republican tactics in general.
Using terrorism to raise funds? Hey, if it convinces people to open ther wallets…. This is why you’ll never hear the words “Republican” and “ethics” ever used in the same sentence.
