Vote for Endicott Peabody. He’s better than you
are. That bumper sticker slogan appeared,
mischievously, in South Boston decades ago. Endicott Peabody,
grandson of the founder of the elite Groton school, was then the
liberal Governor of Massachusetts. Some of those Irish-American
wags, “Southies,” had had it with Peabody’s insufferable
moralizing. They put out that gag bumper sticker and it had its
intended effect. Peabody was dumped unceremoniously in a Democratic
primary. His political career never recovered. His prep school
nickname, “Chub,” spoke to his aristocratic pedigree. It’s not
something you should flaunt in our democratic republic.
Barack Obama is the latest Harvard liberal to give us the
“Chub” treatment. His comments about the American people (“they”)
show how out-of-touch he is. During the ‘08 campaign, he dismissed
the folks who live in what liberals call “flyover
country.”
They cling to their guns and religion. They fear
people who are not like themselves.
This is an administration that allowed a known jihadist to
roam freely through a major army base in Texas. Nidal Hasan openly
defied higher authority. He even gave PowerPoint presentations on
why our enemies were right to use violence against us!
When this walking time bomb finally exploded, killing
fourteen at Fort Hood, the Obama administration promised us an
“investigation.” What they delivered is nothing more than a
whitewash of years of bureaucratic coddling of terrorism and
winking at treason. It didn’t even mention Islamism or jihad. The
murderer had a business card calling himself a “Soldier of Allah.”
He cried out “Allahu Akbar” as he murdered his fellow
soldiers.
The Obama administration’s investigators could not find
their rumps with both hands.
Federal investigators had known about Hasan and his family
going back to 2001!
The FBI, we learn, was aware that Nidal Hasan had been
exchanging emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda leader holed
up in Yemen. But the feds determined that because Nidal Hasan was
said to be an Army psychiatrist, and because he was asking Awlaki
about the mental stresses on Muslims in our army, that his emails
were okay.
What? Imagine it’s World War II, and we have a
German-American soldier whose parents were members of the pro-Nazi
Bund in the 1930s. And we learn that our soldier has been
exchanging letters with top Nazi brass. Do we think for a minute
that the FBI in 1943 would have given him a pass?
What’s the difference? Our top leaders then — from
President Roosevelt down to the lowliest private — were determined
to win World War II. The Obama administration, as we
learned from Bob Woodward’s book, is primarily concerned about
public relations.
They don’t actually want our enemies to win, but they’re
determined not to call the struggle a “war.” It’s an “overseas
contingency.” And they want to give enemy combatants all the
protections and privileges of domestic criminal defendants. It’s
how the ACLU goes to war.
As Woodward makes clear, this administration is deathly
afraid of offending its left-wing base. They’d prefer not to
mention Afghanistan or Guantánamo Bay if they can avoid
it.
Here’s the best proof that politics, not principle, is
guiding the actions of the Obama administration: Nidal Hasan’s
arraignment has been held over for three weeks at Fort Hood —
until after the midterm elections.
Why does this matter? Because he is being charged with
thirteen deaths, not fourteen. One of Nidal Hasan’s
victims was pregnant. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA)
applies wherever the federal government has primary jurisdiction —
from the District of Columbia, to national parks, to military
installations. It applies to our bases in Afghanistan and to our
units and planes operating there. It applies to Fort
Hood.
The law is called the Lacy and Conner Peterson Act, even
though it would not have applied in the case of that young mother
and her unborn son. Their murder was a state criminal matter for
California.
The UVVA is also a part of the Uniform Code of Military
Justice (UCMJ). So why isn’t Nidal Hasan being charged with the
death of an unborn child, too?
Might it be because the Obama administration chooses
not to raise this issue in the critical weeks leading up
to midterm elections? Could it be because it does not want to
further antagonize its liberal base?
Now, remind us, Mr. President: Exactly who is it who
behaves irrationally when he is afraid? I think it’s not the
American people. Sadly, I think it’s our current
leadership.
Stand by for Mr. Obama and his party to get a Chubbing
next month.
