Reply #7: The most chilling comments are about exploiting tragedy.

[CBHagman]

Note that Dionne employs the phrase "laying the groundwork" for Republican intentions to blame Obama if, God forbid, there is another terrorist attack in the United States.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=c3d97647-56e9-4ffa-b06e-5ad4131fef95

The most insidious line of attack involves laying the groundwork for blaming the new president in the event of a terrorist attack.

In a remarkably partisan op-ed piece in The Washington Post last Thursday, Marc A. Thiessen, who was a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, declared flatly: "If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible -- and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation."

This is dangerous, both substantively and politically, and it suggests that some of Bush's loyalists will continue to politicize issues related to terrorism in their efforts to vindicate the former president's legacy.

I've often thought that if Al Gore had become president and 9/11 had still occurred -- I think it would have been less likely, at the very least because Gore wouldn't have stayed on vacation after the August 6th Presidential Daily Briefing -- the GOP would have urged scapegoating the president, rather than rallying around him. But it's still chilling to read that it remains in the GOP playbook.