As some of you may know, controversial lawyer Lynne Stewart was convicted of helping terrorists. She passed messages from Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, author of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, to his followers. Now, no one actually died or was injured as a result of these messages, but she was convicted anyway.
The verdict was denounced civil rights groups who claim that it will discourage lawyers from defending unpopular clients, an essential part of the justice system. The conviction was praised as a blow against terrorism by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, of torture memo infamy.
The newly christened Republican chairman in New York state, Stephen Minarik, has decided to make political capital of this conviction. Minarik issued a statement criticizing the Democratic Party, which is hardly surprising from a GOP chairman. Yet, many think he crossed the line when he said that the Democrats "can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean."
Over the past several years, Republicans have done everything they can to imply that Democrats' actions benefit terrorism. Usually they try to hint this more subtly, by suggesting Dems aren't as tough on [hold hand over heart] enemies of freedom as the GOP. This was the approach adopted by Vice-President Cheney during the election campaign.
Republicans distribute bumper stickers and yard signs with slogans like "I support our troops and President Bush," as though the two were inseparable. They want to make the two inseparable. No one can criticize the troops and if the troops and the president are one and the same, then no one can criticize Bush either.
But usually they are careful suggest that Democratic policies benefit terrorism inadvertantly. Some Dems believe poorly planned invasions against non-threatening countries helps the terrorist cause more than it hurts it and this common sense constitutes 'negligence' in the eyes of the right.
Republicans do this because underhanded, read-between-the-lines smearing is usually harder to counter than unabashed attacks. Americans generally respond to subtle meanness better than to overt nastiness. That's why it's so unusual that a mainstream Republican leader like Minarik would make his attack so explicit.
Even New York's GOP governor, George Pataki, admitted that Minarik had crossed the line of decency, calling the comments "not in the realm of appropriate political discourse."
"The Democratic Party doesn't have anything to do with Lynne Stewart," the governor rightly added.
Curiously, [w]hen asked if Minarik, who is also the Monroe County Republican chairman, should resign, Pataki didn't respond, reported the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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