My Congressman just embarrassed himself on national news again yesterday. Now he's saying photos of a dead Osama bin Laden "have to be released [...] to make sure we get rid of any conspiracy theorists that think that we didn't take care of bin Laden".
Why? How would releasing photos "get rid of any conspiracy theories"? It's the nature of conspiracy theories for them to be rooted in irrationality.
In addition, we also carry the risk of inflaming not just The Muslim World, but much of the rest of the world, by showing off photos of a dead bin Laden as if they were trophies. And considering how difficult it's been to recover America's good will and credibility abroad since George Bush left office, this might deliver a huge blow to that effort.
Maybe if Heck had watched Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, he would have understood this...
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Or maybe not. Maybe Joe Heck just doesn't care. Maybe Joe Heck is just saying whatever he thinks his teabagger friends back home in "quaint" Roma Hills think.
Whatever the case, this just reeks of hypocrisy. I'll let Brian at ProgressNow explain.
Why is no one - especially Republicans - accusing Heck of hating the troops or being un-American?
During the Bush years - and especially in the immediate aftermath of September 11 - any criticism of the president was immediately slammed as being either un-American, hating the troops, or both. We were all supposed to "respect the office of the president," no matter what Bush said or did.
Now the Commander in Chief and President of the United States of America has said that to release those pictures would put American troops and citizens in danger.
And Joe Heck wants them released.
Where are the calls of un-American? Where are the calls of not thinking of the best interest of the troops?
This is Joe Heck being a straight up empty politician, unwilling to put aside partisan politics in even the most spectacular of circumstances. The killing of bin Laden is a political plus for Obama, so Heck and Republicans will do the spineless political move and try to minimize any positives that could come from it.
Think about it. US troops could be put in grave danger. We the People could be put in grave danger. al Qaeda is already drumming up support for retaliation attacks, so the last thing we need is for us to give them recruitment material to go out and do just that. Yet Joe Heck wants us to do just that, just so he, Dean Heller, and other Republicans can score quickie political points from it?
Is it just craven, unpatriotic, and/or anti-American? After all, these were the same people who threw out these labels 8 years ago at just about anyone and everyone who critiqued George Bush on... Well, just about anything and everything! So it's good for the goose, but not for the gander? They can dish it out, but not take it? Maybe if they can't stand the heat, they need to get out of the kitchen.
Sorry, but I'm just not a fan of hypocrisy. And when Joe Heck serves an extra big helping of hypocrisy and cheap, craven political grandstanding, I feel embarrassed to admit he's supposed to represent me in Congress.
Now contrast that BS to President Obama speaking to the troops in Fort Campbell, Kentucky yesterday.
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That pretty much says it all.
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