Leave no sucker punch unthrown. That seems to be the scorched earth
mantra of the GOP campaign as it heads into the final rounds. But if
you're thinking these guys can't go any lower, guess again. George Bush
doesn't just have his head buried in the sand — he's let his integrity
sink below sea level, as well.
The latest dirty blows are a contemptible one-two combination with which
Team Bush has portrayed John Kerry as both the enemy of God and, if not
exactly the ally of al-Qaida, then at least the terrorists' candidate of
choice. To hear them tell it, a vote for Kerry is a vote against God and
Country. Talk about hitting way, way below the belt.
Let's start with God.
It was revealed
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/politics/campaign/24bible.html> last
week that the Republican Party has sent out an incendiary mass mailing
warning that, if elected, "liberals" (and I'll give you one guess which
presidential candidate that includes) will try to — I kid you not — ban
the Bible.
The full-color flyer <http://www.steveclemons.com/GOPMailer.htm>
features a picture of the Bible with the word "Banned" stamped across
it, and a photo of a man, on bended knee, placing a wedding band on the
hand of another man, accompanied by the word "Allowed."
Clearly, Bush and the GOP have taken their Bible-thumping ways to a
whole new level: Now they're using the Good Book to try to bash in the
skulls of their opponents.
This "God is on our side" attack is all the more outrageous because it's
not coming from some shadowy 527 committee that Bush can publicly —
albeit disingenuously — distance himself from but, rather, from deep in
the heart of the Bush-run Republican National Committee. The president's
team has undoubtedly "approved this message."
They've also used the official Georgewbush.com
<http://www.georgewbush.com> campaign website to attack Kerry, a
Catholic, as being "Wrong for Catholics
<http://www.georgewbush.com/Catholics/Comparison.aspx?area=2>", while an
RNC website, KerryWrongForCatholics.com
<http://kerrywrongforcatholics.com/>, slams him for not being loyal
enough to the Pope. We've certainly come a long way since another JFK
had to assure voters in 1960 that he wouldn't take orders from the Vatican.
The idea that Kerry and the Democrats are anti-Bible and that Bush has a
hot line to The Man Upstairs is both offensive and patently absurd. One
look at the latest statistics showing the rise in the number of
Americans living in poverty proves that Republicans — who, contrary to
their claims, do not hold a copyright on the Bible — have grotesquely
perverted its core teachings.
As Rev. Jim Wallis, the editor of Sojourners magazine
<http://www.sojo.net/>, told me: "It's a bitter irony: these people
accuse Democrats of wanting to ban the Bible, then proceed to utterly
ignore the vast majority of its contents when it comes to questions of
social justice, war and peace, and protecting the environment."
Perhaps the holy rollers in the Bush camp should crack open a Bible and
see what it has to say about caring for the poor (Matthew 25:40), caring
for the Earth (Genesis 2:15), and caring for human rights (Genesis
1:27). I've got a hunch Jesus wouldn't be too thrilled with Bush's first
term.
And while they're acquainting themselves with the Book they purport to
defend, the Bushies might also want to have a look at John 8:32 to see
what it has to say about the moral imperative of telling the truth.
Instead, they are doing everything in their power to convince nervous
voters that a vote for John Kerry is a vote for another 9/11. It's the
latest vile twist in the Bush-Cheney "all fear, all the time" campaign
strategy, and the last desperate gasp of an administration utterly
clueless about how to actually win the war on terror.
The fear-mongering has been relentless and revolting — bottoming out
with a sewer-level attack ad put together by a 527
<http://www.pfavoterfund.com/> largely financed by a pair of longtime
Bush-backers. The TV spot shows pictures of Osama bin Laden, 9/11
hijacker Mohammed Atta, the Chechen school murderers, and the Madrid
train bombings and asks: "These people want to kill us. Would you trust
Kerry up against these fanatic killers?"
Somewhere — and I don't think it's heaven — Lee Atwater is smiling.
And lest you think this line of attack doesn't have the Karl Rove seal
of approval, just look at the long line of Bush surrogates lining up to
parrot the "al-Qaida wants Kerry to win" talking point — including Sen.
Orrin Hatch, the increasingly embarrassing House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and the
hatchet-man-in-chief, Dick Cheney. They've all been echoing Hatch's
claim that terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between
now and the election to try and elect Kerry."
What's next, a photo of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi sporting a Kerry-Edwards
campaign button?
This "terrorists for Kerry" routine is as laughable as it is loathsome.
Why in the world would the terrorists want to get rid of George Bush? He
is their dream president, after all: a man who has alienated our allies,
isolated us and united the Muslim world against us.
The president's preemptive invasion of Iraq has been such a boon to
al-Qaida that the British ambassador to Italy called him the terrorist
organization's "best recruiting sergeant." Even Bush's good buddy,
Pakistani President Musharraf (a guy who can't afford to share W's
delusions when it comes to matters of security), said last week that the
war in Iraq has made the world "more dangerous" and "further
complicated" the war on terror.
Of course, the spinmeisters in the Bush camp would rather you never hear
any of this, which is why they've been so quick to smear as unpatriotic
anyone painting a less than rosy picture of Iraq — going so far as to
imply that Kerry, by merely questioning the president's policies, has
given aid and comfort to our enemies.
What a load of gutless garbage. As Thomas Jefferson made clear, "Dissent
is the highest form of patriotism." But Bush can't seem to grasp that
this country is too strong to be endangered by the truth — and that,
indeed, hiding the truth, the hallmark of his administration, is what is
making us weaker and less secure.
I know the president hates to read, but with the debates looming, maybe
he should dust off his library card and brush up on his American
history. And on the Bible.