Terror Warnings as Politics?

Eric Boehlert, writing in The Nation, could be right when he says that Republicans are playing politics with the terror threat level, and that the media is uncritically repeating whatever the government says on this topic. Or, there could be terrorists out there who would love nothing more than to kill Americans. Considering everything that's happened over the last five years, I'd lead towards the latter.

This is not to excuse the Bush Administration completely. They almost certainly are playing politics with this information to a degree. I have a few thoughts on that, though. First, if they are fabricating information, or providing intelligence and then explaining it in public in a manner that is completely disconnected from how they view it themselves, then they are violating the public trust. No one will ever effectively call them on this (certainly not Eric Boehlert), although a Democratic Congress (which may be a reality in early January) might take a stab at it. This would be shameful behavior if it's going on, but not having access to the "real" intelligence meetings, there's not much I can say about this subject beyond the hypothetical.

Next, if they are providing information that is accurate, or mostly accurate, and are withholding only information that is deemed to sensitive to release publically, then I don't care about their political purpose. They are, after all, politicians. They're in the business of winning elections. Democrats shouldn't be afraid of this; Americans will vote for whomever they feel will most protect them, assuming that they are voting on security issues. And this is the ultimate crux of my argument. Why are Democrats so convinced that Republicans can make political hay by releasing information about terrorist plots? If the Democratic Party had a legitimate foreign policy/terror containment plan, would they be so concerned about this? Of course not. In the view of most Americans, the Bush Administration has been ineffective. People want change. But they aren't going to just hand the keys to the country over to a Democratic Congress if there is no substance behind the Democratic Party.

Bottom Line: If you're a Democrat and you're afraid of Republicans pulling political shenanigans with terrorist alerts and intelligence, then stop whining about it and defuse the issue by coming up with a plan that will make Americans want you in office protecting them instead of re-electing Republicans.