Bush's Chief Speechwriter Publishes Twisted Op-Ed About Obama

Marc Thiessen, up until recently George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, has a twisted op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday, arguing that if Barack Obama changes Bush's national-security apparatus in any way, he'll invite domestic terrorism and will shoulder the blame for American deaths. Jason Zengerle described the piece as despicable, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree. 

Most of the arguments are tiresome and familiar: except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and the anthrax attacks, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's record on counterterrorism was top notch. As Thiessen sees it, Bush handed Obama a terrific national-security dynamic, which shouldn't be tinkered with at all.

It reads like a laundry list of discredited talking points: torture works, warrantless wiretaps are necessary, we can't withdraw from Iraq or al-Qaida wins, etc. It's the kind of inane demagoguery that a sensible person would be embarrassed to be associated with.

But it's the shameless scare tactics that are truly offensive: