Denial (and I don't mean the river)

By Creature

"It is not politics but a confluence of events that has forced the security focus on Congress." -Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)

The party that wants to paint the Democrats as a party of terrorist sympathizers says their upcoming legislative agenda is not about politics. Of course I take them at their word:

Republican leaders hope to complete a defense spending bill, a defense policy bill, legislation to give Congress's blessing to the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program and to bring the president's military tribunals into constitutional compliance, and a port security overhaul.

And let's not forget the granddaddy of all non-political ploys:

A resolution commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will also likely be a vehicle for heated debate on the policies that followed.

At least the president didn't sink so low as to deny the politics behind his actions:

"They're not political speeches," Bush said Wednesday when asked if they might have an impact on the congressional elections just over two months away. "They're speeches about the future of this country, and they're speeches to make it clear that if we retreat before the job is done, this nation would become even more in jeopardy. These are important times, and I seriously hope people wouldn't politicize these issues that I'm going to talk about."

If all this denial is true, I'd hate to see what playing politics with security really looks like. Thankfully, it's not an election year and all this political posturing is not about saving the GOP from achieving minority status once again.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)