It’s the anthrax, stupid

It seems a big campaign theme on the part of the neocon/Bush/GOP cabal going into the November elections will be something along the lines of “we have not had another terrorist attack since 9/11, so our policies in Iraq and at home are working.” It was most recently uncorked by Dick Cheney himself on Meet the Press last weekend:

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, Tim, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of securing the nation against terrorists. You know, we’re here on the fifth anniversary, and there has not been another attack on the United States. And that’s not an accident, because we’ve done a hell of a job here at home, in terms of homeland security, in terms of the terrorist surveillance program we’ve put in place, in terms of the financial tracking program we put in place, and because of our detainee policy, where we, in fact, were able to interrogate captured terrorists to get the kind of intelligence that has allowed us to disrupt...

This assertion, however, is hogwash. Democrats should not be afraid to call it a lie, in fact. Although Bush & Co. would love to sweep it under the rug of history, most Americans do in fact remember the series of anthrax attacks upon the Congress, the media and the postal service employees who delivered the poison letters. Mr. Cheney forgets — but we shouldn’t — that these attacks upon America occurred after 9/11.

Despite the ad nauseam lies of this radical Administration, the anthrax attacks did happen. Today, they remain unsolved. Like with Usama bin Laden, the trail has gone stone cold. And, friends, this is not a record of strength combating terrorism or protecting the American people. Indeed, it is a record of weakness and incompetence.