Brendan Nyhan

Elizabeth Dole suggests dissent endangers the troops

Via Salon’s War Room blog, here’s NBC’s First Read on how Sen. Elizabeth Dole has joined the GOP’s latest anti-dissent offensive

Six days after [Karl Rove] accused liberals — especially MoveOn.org — of being weak in responding to 9/11, MoveOn today launches a $500,000 TV and print advertising campaign calling to bring home US soldiers from Iraq. (“We got in the wrong way,” the ad states. “Let’s get out the right way.”) As if on cue, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) sent out a statement yesterday calling the ad “an utter disgrace.” “To politicize the War in Iraq at this critical juncture,” she said, “emboldens the enemy and does so at the peril of our men and women in uniform. I hope my colleagues from both sides of the aisle will join me in disavowing this poisonous ad.”

Once again, a prominent Republican has deployed all the usual code words — “embolden” the enemy, endangering the troops. How can we spread democracy abroad when one party is trying to suppress it at home?