John Leo asks a very good question: "Do we really need yet another major assault on a prominent politician, or can we spend some time discussing actual issues?" He rightly points out that we only tend to object to such attacks when they are against someone we mostly agree with. But he seems to lump together the attack of the Swift Boat Veterans against John Kerry with the democratic comparisons of President Bush to the Nazi regime. To me, these seem like incredibly different things. John Kerry unquestionably misrepresented his involvement in the Vietnam War. The Swift Boat Veterans called him on this, attacked him for his duplicity, and for his record then and since. This is a necessary part of political debate. Do you want someone who routinely lies to you as your president? Someone fervently against the military as Commander in Chief during a time of conflict (unjustifiable conflict perhaps, but that is a different issue, we are in it and need to finish it right)? Should we not have access to the truths of the candidate's positions and record? These seem fairly self-evident questions. Conversely, what new information does the comparison of President Bush to the Nazis add to the debate? If you hate his policies, attack them. If you think he really did lie about the situation in Iraq, present your evidence for that assertion. Should Tom DeLay have called the ruling to remove Mrs. Schivao's feeding tube "medical terrorism"? No, probably not. It was a hyperbolic statement of the sort that politicians should be careful of. Should he have come down strongly and publicly against it? Should he be working for judicial reform if he thinks that represents an abuse? Absolutely. Should he campaign for support for that reform? Yes, he should. Does the fact that some now (and would otherwise still) send death threats to Judge Greer stop him? No, it shouldn't. Fanatics and extremists, insanity of all sorts, looms in any extreme position, and thus in any issue. We must not let that stop us from seeking to move forward. And we cannot allow deceitful politicians impede that progress by misrepresentation of themselves and their positions either.
