An Islamic terrorist, with apparent ties to al–Qaeda in Yemen, just attempted to blow up a plane as it was landing in Detroit. Al-Qaeda activities in Yemen are a real problem, as witnessed by the U.S. missile attack on Yemen just days ago against an al–Qaeda operative linked to the Fort Hood shooting.
In a totally predictable, by now, reaction, Think Progress, which blows the whistle to which left-wing blogs react, immediately launched an attack on the first Republican to speak up about the incident, in this case, Congressman Pete Hoestra:
Hoekstra Quickly Politicizes Attempted Terrorist Attack, Suggests Obama’s Clueless On National Security
Here is the fuller context of the Hoeksta comment, with the words edited out of the Think Progress post placed in bold by me:
The ranking Republican on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says today’s suspected terrorist incident at Detroit Metro Airport could provide further evidence of a Yemen-based branch of al–Qaida intent on an attack on American soil and believes the Obama administration needs to take more aggressive action to combat the threat.
“It’s not surprising,” U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Holland Republican, said of the alleged terrorist attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit.
A Nigerian who authorities said had told them he was ordered by al–Qaida to detonate an explosive was in custody. Reports linked the explosives to Yemen. “People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” said Hoekstra.
Steve Benen, citing the Think Progress post, was even more blunt: PETE HOEKSTRA, SHAMELESS BUFFOON…. Alan Colmes also picked up on the Think Progress post to quip: “Pretty anxious to score political points, aren’t we?”
The fear that conservatives would point out the obvious about this terrorist attack seemed to be a common first reaction:
“[The attack] means Greater Wingnuttia is going to get the very special happy Christmas they most desire, because what they like best of all is to wet their pants in an ecstasy of hysterical screeching …. “
John Cole of Balloon-Juice immediately lined up his preemptive attack:
I’m not going to speculate about what happened because the reports are all over the place, and I do not want to minimize the seriousness of it, but I will state that I think we all know the kind of media freak-out we are about to have over this event.
How was it an attempt to “politicize” terrorism for Hoeksta to point out the obvious? Al-Qaeda activities in Yemen are a problem, and this incident may prove that those activities have the ability to reach our shores as in the Fort Hood shooting.
To sum up, let me see if I have this right. Think Progress and its progeny attempt to score political points by claiming that Pete Hoekstra was attempting to score political points, and Hoekstra is the buffoon?
Must we all remain silent about every terrorist incident and attack for fear of being accused of attempting to “politicize” the issue.
Perhaps if more people had spoken up during the Clinton years against the policy of creating walls between intelligence services and law enforcement, and treating terrorism as a mere law enforcement problem, we could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
Uh oh, did I just attempt to score political points? And if I did, does that make me wrong?
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About That “Firecracker”
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