The politics of fraud

David Limbaugh:

We often talk about the Democrats' conspicuous lack of a policy agenda as proof they are a party in decline. But I think there's even better evidence of the phenomenon: They habitually misrepresent what they stand for and what Republicans stand for, and constantly mischaracterize President Bush's actions.

If they had confidence in the salability of their ideas, would they need to play word games, resort to euphemisms, revise history, distort facts and repeat patently false charges?

I long for the days when the worst you could expect from a liberal was the articulate but good-faith presentation of wrongheaded ideas. Today, the political exponents of liberalism reside predominantly in the Democratic Party, which -- on the national level -- is on the verge of intellectual and moral bankruptcy.

On issue after issue, they dissemble -- grossly and shamelessly. They aren't honest about their positions on abortion, the Iraq War, their criteria in confirming judges and "values" issues, to name a few. They must believe they can't afford to be.

Worse, they paint President Bush as a liar and miscreant at every opportunity. The most egregious example is their unconscionable charge that the president lied about Iraqi WMD. I honestly don't know how President Bush has been able to withstand the libels with such dignity and class, except for, in his words, "family, faith and friends."

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Can someone please tell me what motive President Bush would have -- other than laudably trying to prevent further terrorist attacks -- to listen in on private citizen's phone calls? Can they produce just one innocent victim of the NSA surveillance program?

Better yet, can anyone explain why the administration should need to demonstrate probable cause to listen in to a suspected terrorist's communications when time is of the essence? Do we really want to hamstring our intelligence agencies when going after the enemy in war -- as opposed to pursuing suspected criminals for law enforcement purposes?

More importantly, does anyone really believe Democratic leaders oppose the blanket practice of monitoring Al Qaeda, and, if so, why? Or are they just grandstanding, as usual, to score political points?

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There is much more.