Im not accustomed to

I’m not accustomed to watching George W. Bush give a
speech and hoping he hits it out of the park. But that was certainly my
feeling last night as the president addressed the nation about yesterday’s
bombing. And on balance I’d say he came through with flying colors.

And for all his faults — and, yes, he certainly has them — you can’t
have watched Rudy Giuliani over the last 36 hours without thinking that in
many important ways he has been a truly great Mayor of New York —
something many Dems like myself have long thought. And certainly moments
of stress and tragedy, which require steel and grit, are his best
moments.

And it’s been pleasing to see how many Republicans and Democrats — all
of them as nearly as I can tell — have focused only on the requirements
of the moment, and resisted every opportunity to push even peripheral
partisan advantages.

Regrettably, though, there seem to be at least a few examples of the
cheapest, most craven opportunism. In this
column in National Review Online, Larry Kudlow says that rising
to the challenge of the moment will cost of “hundreds of billions of
dollars” in new defense expenditures.

That may be debatable but certainly the impulse is legitimate and
understandable. And you can even cut Kudlow some slack for the cheap shot
implied by his charge that “terrorist invasion of the U.S. mainland
underscores the urgent need to rebuild the defense and national security
structure that has slowly but steadily eroded in recent years.”

This is after all a man with the vision and integrity of a
double-breasted suit.

But, according to Kudlow, this tragedy also means busting the lockbox,
ditching debt reduction, and having another round of massive tax
cuts!

Phony lockboxes must be thrown out the window. Unnecessary
obsessions over debt retirement must be driven away. Now is the time for
aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus to promote growth and finance
freedom. Substantial tax cuts on individuals, businesses, capital
investment, and equipment depreciation should be immediately put into
place … Steps to promote energy production must be taken
aggressively.

In other words, the only patriotic response to
this horror is to enact the complete Bush legislative agenda!

What a shameless gambit.

David Horowitz trots out some similar
crap. (“It’s time for those on the political left to rethink their
alliances with anti-American radicals at home and abroad.“) But he’s
unworthy of mention; beneath contempt.