Paint the Nation Blue

From the Washington Times, "Inside the Beltway":

Not blue enough?

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who has caused a firestorm of protest for comparing treatment of U.S. detainees to actions by "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others," will be marched out by the Democratic National Committee tomorrow evening to appear alongside DNC Chairman Howard Dean at a "Paint the Nation Blue" fundraising event.

Meanwhile, retired Navy Cmdr. Paul E. Galanti, a former prisoner of war, says he has been inundated with correspondence after firing off a letter to Mr. Durbin that, in turn, got posted on bulletin boards from West Point to the Pentagon.

"I just got mad," Cmdr. Galanti said in a telephone interview yesterday. "If [Mr. Durbin] wanted to state his case, he should have called [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld. Instead, he decided to make political hay, hitting the [U.S. military] when they're down."

The retired Navy commander wrote to the senator: "As one who was held in a North Vietnamese prison for nearly seven years and whose definition of torture and bad treatment is somewhat at variance with yours, I deplore your senseless comments about alleged 'barbaric treatment' at our terrorist-detention facility at Guantanamo.

"Your remarks comparing Guantanamo to the regimes of Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot are outrageous. I tried to think of why a rational human being could make such an outlandish statement, but I keep coming up short," Cmdr. Galanti wrote, adding "your moment of pique will be infinitely more damaging to members of our Armed Forces serving in harm's way."

He also drew Mr. Durbin's attention to "al Jazeera's joy at your comments."

"You, sir, for having aided and abetted the enemy in time of war, have been relegated in my mind to the status of Jane Fonda and your colleague, John Kerry, as contemptible traitors."

Back to tomorrow evening's "Paint the Nation Blue" event, Andrew Wright, a DNC finance director, says Mr. Dean and Mr. Durbin will "reach out to all Americans with our positive agenda for the future, and we will stand and fight the propaganda and destructive policies of the Republican Party."

This is positively ridiculous. Dean and Durbin provide textbook examples of how NOT to reach out to Americans. They have NOTHING positive to offer for the future. Furthermore, it is their Dem propaganda and destructive rhetoric that have put American lives in greater jeopardy.

Mad Dr. Dean's high profile appearance with Durbin soldifies the fact that the Dems are irresponsible, fringe loons. As party chairman, Dean should be reprimanding Durbin, rather than legitimizing his behavior of the past seven days.

The reason Dean supports Durbin is because Durbin's attack on the American military at Gitmo is in perfect alignment with the Democratic Party's beliefs. The Dems will gladly bash the military and belittle America. As long as it hurts Bush, it's the right stuff.

The Dems will stop at nothing to regain power.

However, as the county map of the 2004 election shows, the nation prefers a nice shade of red to blue.