E.J. Dionne is clearly not reading this blog. Today, he writes the following:
As one of Feingold's colleagues pointed out, a censure proposal related to any aspect of the president's policies on terrorism would once have unleashed an unrelenting Republican attack on the sponsor's patriotism. Now, Republicans have to content themselves with using calls for censuring or impeaching Bush to rally their own dispirited troops.
I'm not sure it's been "unrelenting," but a number of conservatives have implicitly questioned Feingold's patriotism this week, as I showed:
Frist later attacked Feingold again, stating, "This is a political stunt, a political stunt that is addressed at attacking the president of the United States of America when we're at war." The implication, of course, is that it's illegitimate to criticize the president during wartime - a dangerous and anti-democratic notion.
Other attacks on dissent came from Speaker Dennis Hastert's spokesman, Ron Bonjean, and Vice President Cheney. Bonjean asked the rhetorical question, "Just who is the enemy to the Democrats, the president of the United States or the terrorists working to destroy our way of life?" And Cheney said in a speech that "Some Democrats in Congress have decided the president is the enemy." By this pseudo-logic, which Republicans have used repeatedly since 9/11, criticism of the President means that Democrats aren't serious about fighting the terrorist enemy.
Republican chairman Ken Mehlman also used this approach in an email to supporters (PDF), stating that "Democrat leaders never miss an opportunity to put politics before our nation's security. And now, they would rather censure the President for doing his job than actually fight the War on Terror." Again, the implication is that Democrats are weakening national security and choosing not to fight the war on terror.
...Media Matters reports that "Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called Sen. Russ Feingold's introduction of a resolution to censure President Bush 'borderline treasonous behavior'" -- yet another anti-democratic attack on dissent.
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