Vice President Joe Biden wandered into an especially heated meeting of House Democrats last night, and decided to regurgitate the narrative he’s been hearing so often lately.
According to multiple sources, as reported by the liberal Politico, Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) was delivering a spittle-flecked rant about Republicans, and the Vice President of the United States decided to chime in:
“We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”
Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists.”
Naturally, Biden is denying these remarks today. It’s possible he honestly doesn’t remember uttering them.
Biden is like a little kid who wanders into the kitchen during a heated argument between his parents, and begins repeating their cuss words. He’s been marinating in this disgusting “hostage taker” and “terrorist” rhetoric from his party for days, so of course he just blurts it out when he gets excited.
Biden’s vice-presidential opponent from 2008, Sarah Palin, appeared on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News program last night, and described Biden’s remarks as “appalling” and “vile.”
You may recall that Palin was widely blamed for the Tucson shootings in the liberal media, based on such things as using the word “reload” in a speech, and using the same “target” symbols everyone else uses on an electoral map. Well, here’s the Vice President – echoing widespread, shrill rhetoric pumping out of his Democrat Party – calling Republicans “terrorists.” We all know the right way to handle “terrorists,” right?
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was no more amused by Biden’s antics than Palin. He issued a strong statement last night:
With the President holding the American economy hostage, I would prefer to think of myself as a Freedom Fighter.
The only people taking hostages around here are those who want to continue our path toward economic ruin. Spending has gone up over 25 percent in the Obama/Biden Administration. Our national debt will have doubled in their first term. And even the so-called debt reduction deals they are reluctantly supporting now don’t cut debt at all – in fact they add $7 trillion in new debt over the next 10 years.
The Tea Party is fighting for a Balanced Budget Amendment and an end to our out-of-control spending and debt. These are goals supported by over 75 percent of the American people. It is insulting to these same American people to both have their voices unheard, and then to have those representing their goals in Washington attacked in such a manner.
The “terrorist” rhetoric gurgling out of the Democrat Party is a huge intellectual triumph for the Tea Party. Not only does it make the Left look desperate and vicious, it validates one of the principal arguments of the Tea Party movement: our bloated government has become so insular and out-of-touch that there’s no place for ordinary Americans who value personal liberty at the negotiating table.
The point behind slandering advocates of smaller government as “terrorists” is to rule their arguments beyond the pale, and shut down further discussion. Terrorists are monsters. They have nothing to contribute to a rational debate. They use force to oppress their enemies, and enforce their will. When the Left calls people “Nazis” or “terrorists,” they’re trying to silence them, not debate them.
It’s no longer possible to dismiss the Tea Party’s concerns about an out-of-control system that doesn’t listen to patriotic, free-thinking citizens. The entirety of the Democrat Party, and a great deal of the media – sadly including the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal – has spent the last few weeks comparing them to al-Qaeda. Besides being a despicable insult to the actual victims of real terrorism and their families, it’s an unforgivable insult to people who hold the legitimate view, backed by American tradition and our nation’s founding documents, that government has grown far too large.
Passionate movements misunderstand, or misrepresent, the motivations of their opponents all the time. Nothing new there. What’s different about the “terrorist” slander is how integral it has become to the Establishment’s critique of the Tea Party. They’ve been called “terrorists,” “racists,” and “anti-American” since their inception, when they had the temerity to show up at Democrat town halls and ask tough questions. The entire liberal response to the Tea Party is completely predicated on dismissing them as thugs, nihilists, and greedy monsters. It’s not just a caricature that slips out during heated arguments; it’s the sum total of the argument.
Why do you suppose all those hard-working, middle-class people – many of whom will cheerfully tell you that they never paid much attention to politics before – are working so hard to support the extremely difficult task of bringing fiscal restraint to government? Inventing ugly fantasies about their alleged racist, anarchist, or fascist urges is an intellectual safety blanket for a Left that couldn’t look them in the eye if it accepted the sincerity of their concerns.
The Tea Party has also been critical of Barack Obama’s judgment, and that criticism has been richly vindicated as well. Not only has Obama indulged in plenty of despicable “hostage” rhetoric himself, but he’s the one who put Joe Biden in the White House. The pair of them should be on their knees before the actual victims of real terrorism, apologizing for the sickening appropriation of their tragedy to score cheap political points.
