Mary Landrieu Physically Threatens President Bush

I'm not sure this comment even needs an explanatory preamble:

Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu threatened President Bush with physical violence this morning on ABC's Sunday morning news program This Week.

"If one person criticizes our sheriffs, or says one more thing, including the President of the United States, he will hear from me - one more word about it after this show airs and I - I might likely have to punch him - literally," says Landrieu.

"Including the President of the United States," hmm? What criticism has the President of the United States directed at any state or local official in the state of Louisiana? I haven't heard or read word one of it, myself. Indeed, the President of the United States isn't even defending himself from the {ahem} criticism directed at him and his Administration from people like Mary Landrieu and Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin - you know, "the people who really bungled the job."

I wonder - will any Republican senator denounce Landrieu for her threat against the President? And will she get a "friendly" visit from the Secret Service? God knows she ought to. Just as she ought to be censured by her colleagues at the very least. Shinola, can you imagine what the press reaction would have been if, say, Jesse Helms had threatened - not in a private, off-the-record setting (think Trent Lott at Strom Thurmond's birthday party) but on national television - to physically attack Bill Clinton?

I agree with Brother Hinderaker, who echoes my Friday thoughts today:

Hugh Hewitt, meanwhile, has advised conservatives to "turn the other cheek" in reaction to unfair criticism from the left. Among other reasons, he believes that the American people will react negatively to the left's maniacal, over-the-top attacks. Hugh thinks the current vile assault on the Administration could be another Wellstone funeral moment. I think he's wrong; the MSM, in full support-the-Democrats mode, is daily making respectable even the wackiest attacks on the Administration. Of course, I'm not by nature a cheek-turning sort, but I think that has too often been the Administration's approach. This time, it could be fatal.

Not if the latest polling data is any indication. But it could be harmful in a different way - namely, by infuriating a Republican base that is fed up with not just this "vile assault" but the past going-on five years of opposition billiousness and wants some massive retaliation, and instead gets the "New Tone" shoved down its collective throat at every opportunity. Hell, speaking for myself, the White House could forego the steel-cage death match with Senator Landrieu if it would simply terminate this drippy, insipid "bipartisanship" with a gang of hacks and thugs that would probably try to assassinate him bodily as well as his character if given the slightest chance, and has never once recupricated his gestures of conciliation in all the time since he took office.

Does this necessitate vileness in turn? No; but it does mean practicing a little self defense. It does mean promoting the President's accomplishments (strong economy, progress in the GWOT, particularly in Iraq, the plummeting federal deficit) and taking credit for them. More to the point, it does mean touting the rapid federal response to Hurricane Katrina. And it does mean criticizing Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin for their incompetence, including publicizing how there would have been no evacuation at all if the President hadn't urged them to carry one out.

Again, I'm not holding myself out as representating any other conservative, but I think there are a great many like me who want to see these left-wing scumbags slapped back, and slapped back hard. "Turning the other cheek" is all fine and good, but there's no place for it in politics. After a certain point sheer self-respect, to say nothing of anybody else's, demands that the President say, in the words of the late Owen Hart, "Enough is enough! It's time for a change!"

The other side's "vile attacks" and his passivity in the face of them are the ultimate genesis of the President's less than scintillating sophomore term-to-date. If he wants to revive his fortunes, he's gonna have to dig out the brass knucks.

At least when Senator Landrieu is in the building.