President Bush pronounced Democrats the “party of cut and run” Thursday in a sharp escalation of rhetoric just 40 days before the midterm elections.
“Five years after 9/11, Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second guessing,” Bush said at a Republican fundraiser in Birmingham, Ala. “The party of FDR, the party of Harry Truman, has become the party of cut and run.”
Bush criticized Democrats for using a leaked portion of the National Intelligence Estimate to argue against the war in Iraq.
“Democrats are using the NIE to mislead the American people and justify their policy of withdrawal from Iraq,” Bush said.
“The American people need to know what withdrawal from Iraq would mean. By withdrawing from Iraq before the job is done, we would be doing exactly what the extremists and the terrorists want.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. disagreed.
“George Bush has no credibility left on national security,” the Nevada Democrat said.
“No matter how many stump speeches he gives on the campaign trail, the American people can see the damage his tough talk has done to America’s safety.”
Earlier this week, Rep. Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested that by fighting terrorists in Iraq, the U.S. could be inviting trouble at home.
“It may become more likely that we’ll have to fight them here,” the California congresswoman said.
Without naming Harman, Bush fired back at her argument.
“History tells us that logic is false,” he said. “We didn’t create terrorism by fighting terrorism. Iraq is not the reason why the terrorists are at war against us.”
Bush said terrorists do not need the Iraq war as an excuse to attack the West. He pointed out that Islamic radicals have been incited to violence by a variety of pretexts, including cartoons of Muhammad.
“If we weren’t in Iraq, they would be using our relationship and friendship with Israel to recruit, or the Crusades, or cartoons,” he said.
The president also took a veiled swipe at Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for suggesting the U.S. should have left Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in power.
“If this is what the Democrats think, they need to make this case to the American people,” Bush said.
