BOND. DUMB BOND…. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) has been one of the leading GOP attack dogs against the Obama administration when it comes to national security policy. He’s not doing the Republican Party any favors — the poor guy has no idea what he’s talking about.
Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) struggled on Wednesday to distinguish between the Obama Administration’s handling of Christmas bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Bush’s similar handling of shoe-bomber Richard Reid in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.”
It was a rather humiliating display. Bond suggested Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan was responsible for the FBI reading Abdulmutallab his rights, a claim that doesn’t make any sense. When the hosts noted that Bond was silent when Bush/Cheney handled the Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui cases the same way Obama is handling the Abdulmutallab case now, Bond said, “It’s a lot different time,” as if the American system of justice changed was overhauled after 2006 (it wasn’t).
The conservative senator argued, “We now have military commissions.” When reminded that we had military commissions then, too, Bond ignored the correction and stuck to his error. He added that it was a “bad idea” to try Reid and Moussaoui in federal courts, but couldn’t explain why.
Before anyone feels sorry for this clown, and thinks it’s unfair to criticize the doddering senator for being so hopelessly confused, remember that Kit Bond is currently the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It’s his job to be informed, coherent, and aware of current events. He’s failing in those responsibilities miserably.
Also note, Bond yesterday called for Brennan to resign for having committed the awful offense of being correct. Today, Bond seemed reluctant to stand by his own remarks, but the White House nevertheless accurately characterized the senator’s nonsense as “a pathetic attack.”
The entire GOP offensive against the White House over the Abdulmutallab matter has been a rather transparent joke, burdened by errors and lies from the outset. It’s not just Bond, but his incoherence makes him one of the more embarrassing members of the mob.
I suspect Republicans thought this would be easier. After all, there’s a generally predictable quality to these smear campaigns — the GOP accuses Dems of being wrong about national security, the media plays along, and Dems backpedal, even when they’re right. But over the last couple of weeks, this hasn’t worked out as planned. The White House has pushed back hard, Dems are blasting GOP misconduct, and even some in the media have begun to realize that Republican attacks are substantively ridiculous.
