Before we were at "war" and peoples patriotism was questioned at the drop of a hat by the current administration you mean?
So, tell me, Doug, if you searched the entire collected speeches of George Bush, would you find the word unpatriotic even once?
The word unpatriotic doesn't have to be used, nor does it have to come from Bush himself. What has Bush said to discourage these kinds of attacks? Quotes like those below are available in almost limitless supply. It was the Republican's strategy in 2002 to question the patriotism of those who opposed them, however indirectly, and it remains a tool in their arsenal.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett: statements by Democrats "are exactly what our opponents, our enemies, want us to do."
Vice President Dick Cheney (with Bush's approval (according to Time magazine)) Democrats "need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions, as were made by some today, that the White House had advance information that would have prevented the tragic attacks of 9/11."
Minority (at the time) Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., speaking about administration critics: "For us to be talking like our enemy is George W. Bush and not Osama bin Laden, that's not right."
Fred Barnes (Fox): Democrats "looked like not a loyal opposition but a disloyal opposition, encouraging ... conspiracy theories about how President Bush might have known about the terrorist attacks prior to September 11 and didn't do anything about them."
Washington Times: "some Republicans with access to the White House" said that "the White House must convince both the Democrats and the press that a return to the national unity that prevailed until last week is essential to the health and security of the nation."
Lott again: "How dare Sen. Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field."
Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., head of the National Republican Campaign Committee: Daschle's "divisive comments have the effect of giving aid and comfort to our enemies by allowing them to exploit divisions in our country."
Ashcroft in response to critisizm of the administration: We need honest, reasoned debate; not fearmongering. To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists - for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil. (see http://tinyurl.com/2kazz for analisis by the Washington Post)
Ann Coulter: "Liberals are up to their old tricks again. Twenty years of treason haven't slowed them down."
Michael Kelly, columnist, in the Washington Post: "In 1942 George Orwell wrote this, in Partisan Review, of Great Britain's pacifists: "Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.' " . . .
An essentially identical logic obtains now. Organized terrorist groups have attacked America. These groups wish the Americans to not fight. The American pacifists wish the Americans to not fight. If the Americans do not fight, the terrorists will attack America again. And now we know such attacks can kill many thousands of Americans. The American pacifists, therefore, are on the side of future mass murders of Americans. They are objectively pro-terrorist."
Limbaugh: "Daschle's allies in this situation include the barbarians who run North Korea, the Islamic extremists who run Iran and the mass murderer Saddam Hussein who controls Iraq. That's the company Tom Daschle has joined" (Windows Media Player audio). "Now he's decided to roll the dice and align himself with Iran, North Korea and Hussein,"
and
You seek political advantage with the nation at war. There is no greater testament to the depths to which the Democratic Party and liberalism have fallen. You now position yourself, Senator Daschle, to exploit future terrorist attacks for political gain. You are worse, sir, than the ambulance-chasing tort lawyers that make up your chief contributors. You, sir, are a disgrace. You are a disgrace to patriotism, you are a disgrace to this country, you are a disgrace to the Senate, and you ought to be a disgrace to the Democratic Party but sadly you're probably a hero among some of them today...
Novak: Barbara Krull sends me an e-mail saying, 'It is patriotic to debate foreign policy, especially when we have troops on the ground whose lives depend on our making sound policy.' Barbara, it was people like you who undermined our forces in the Vietnam War and brought Communist tyranny to a country that doesn't deserve it."
Sean Hannity (Fox News): Daschle "is communicating to our enemies that this nation is divided, that we lack resolve and that we have forgotten Sept. 11."
And on and on and on.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
