Within hours of the Oslo massacre, the right attempted to blame Muslims and Obama's policies. Here we see the role of The American Enterprise Institute, which got their talking points into the Washington Post within hours. The AEI is now home to John Bolton, Lynne Cheney,and Newt Gingrich.
Most of you have never seen Jennifer Rubin's column "Right Turn" in the washington Post. Jen seems to be the journalistic equivalent of a "fluffer," and she has an uncontrollable crush on Paul Ryan. Each day her column chronicles the bravery and honesty of the GOP as they outwit Obama at every turn, dealing him one crushing defeat after another. It's OK if you don't remember that, but, in Jen's world, every day is another ordeal of public humiliation and defeat for Obama. To say her columns are mainly propaganda is putting it kindly. But I'm sure she'll go from this job to someplace prestigous like McKinsey.
But even I was shocked at how fast she tried to turn the Norway bombing into a political defeat for Obama. The dust had barely settled in Oslo when Jen farted out a column blaming Muslims for the terrorism in Oslo, and she took the opportunity to attack liberals who are undermining America.
Jen starts by quoting the Weekly Standard. To be fair, the Weekly Standard piece talks about some terrorism arrests in Norway last year, and it does not try to link the attack to Washington politics.
And if this attack was al Qaeda’s handiwork or the work of an affiliated group, then this is once again evidence that the terror network can hit targets around the globe. The network is not finished simply because Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. Many answered the call for jihad that al Qaeda made both before and after the September 11 attacks. They did not give up merely because the deadliest and most influential terrorist ever succumbed to Navy Seals.
The Weekly Standard piece did not mention Obama, but Jen just has to go there. Notice that she credits The American Enterprise Institute for feeding her opportunistic talking points trying to link Obama and the Oslo bombing.
Moreover, there is a specific jihadist connection here.........This is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists. I spoke to Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute, who has been critical of proposed cuts in defense and of President Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal plan. “There has been a lot of talk over the past few months on how we’ve got al-Qaeda on the run and, compared with what it once was, it’s become a rump organization. But as the attack in Oslo reminds us, there are plenty of al-Qaeda allies still operating. No doubt cutting the head off a snake is important; the problem is, we’re dealing with global nest of snakes.”
Got that? They were practically doing cartwheels at the thought of a major al-Qaeda attack
because it meant Obama's killing of Bin Laden was a humiliating failure. Without skipping a beat, they are already cranking up the Democrats-are-weak-on-terror attack machine. Clearly, Obama has to share the blame for the attack because he is soft on Islamic terrorism.
For the Dick Cheney cronies at the AEI, a al-Qaeda attack is Christmas in July! Quick, book Lynn Cheney for Meet The Press!
Some irresponsible lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — I will point the finger at Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and yet backed the Gang of Six scheme to cut $800 billion from defense — would have us believe that enormous defense cuts would not affect our national security. Obama would have us believe that al-Qaeda is almost caput and that we can wrap up things in Afghanistan. All of these are rationalizations for doing something very rash, namely curbing our ability to defend the United States and our allies in a very dangerous world.
This is all pretty familiar stuff - vote for Republicans or your children die. Because only right wing Christian nationalists can protect the nation from the Muslim hordes.
What? The terrorist was a right wing Muslim hating Christian Nationalist? Nevermind.