Dana Milbank listened to the Republicans on the Senate floor yesterday so you wouldn’t have to. Here’s our friend from Missouri:
“When a newly revitalized al-Qaeda carries out a 9/11-scale attack, you will own that one,” Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) told his good friends across the aisle.
Here’s our friend from Minnesota:
Sen. Norman Coleman (R-Minn.) advised his Democratic colleagues that they were “handing al-Qaeda a victory that they will be able to use to strengthen their forces and then hurt and kill more Americans.”
And our good pal from Utah:
“This is the worst case of capitulation to appeasement since Neville Chamberlain spoke the words ‘Peace in our time,’ ” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said during yesterday’s debate.
And the Gentle Lady from Texas:
Terrorists “will follow us home,” warned Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.). “If we don’t stand for freedom against this enemy, we will see it again on our own shores.”
And the former Democrat from Alabama:
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) advised his colleagues that they were sending “a message of surrender, a message of submission, a message of failure.”</blockquote
Not to be outdone by the former Democrat from Connecticut.
The lone member of the Democratic caucus to oppose the Iraq withdrawal, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), adopted the Republican language that Democrats were proposing a “deadline for defeat.” He warned that “if we follow the plan in this legislation,” Americans would lose their “security from terrorism here at home.”
Meanwhile, the Senators from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York were strangely calm and unafraid. Although one Senator from Virginia did chime in.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who won his Senate seat last year on an antiwar theme, suggested an end to the “defeatism and surrender” accusations. “I think we need to calm down a bit,” he proposed.
And I propose that the Republicans load up on duct tape, plastic sheeting, and bottled water. Cuz it’s hard out there for a bedwetter.