Via Josh Marshall, White House spokesperson Dana Perino claimed during today’s White House briefing that no one in the administration has questioned Democrats’ patriotism:
Q Can the President say both that he does not question the patriotism of Democrats, but their actions aid the enemy?
MS. PERINO: I think that I want to take a little bit more time to talk about this based on our discussion this morning, because the President’s policies are held up to intense scrutiny by the media, and by Democrats, and by everyone around the world, and we welcome that. And I think that when the President and his team and other Republicans try to hold the Democrat’s policies up to that same standard of scrutiny, that immediately, the Democrats play the patriotism card.
And I’m sorry, but I don’t think that there’s anyone in this White House who has actually done that, nor have we have engaged in name calling…
In response, I have compiled an edited version of my timeline of GOP attacks on dissent since 9/11 below. For the sake of clarity, I’m excluding all of the cases in which the White House has suggested that criticism of the president, opposition to the war in Iraq, or opposition to the war on terror emboldens the enemy or that it constitutes “waving the white flag of surrender,” etc. I think much of that rhetoric also suggests a lack of patriotism (see the timeline for details), but I will set it aside here. Thus, this list focuses exclusively on cases in which administration officials have explicitly suggested that liberals or Democrats have treasonous, disloyal, or unpatriotic motives or don’t care about national security:
December 2001: In response to Democratic plans to question parts of the USA Patriot Act during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, John Ashcroft suggests that people who disagree with the administration’s anti-terrorism policies are on the side of the terrorists. “To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America’s enemies, and pause to America’s friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.”
September 2002: Campaigning against Democrats who did not support his legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security (a department whose creation he had previously opposed), President Bush said that “the Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people.”
July 2005: Senator Dick Durbin states that a description of US interrogation procedures at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility sounds like something “done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others.” Presidential adviser Karl Rove responds by suggesting that Durbin and other liberals seek to put US troops in danger, saying that “Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.”
January 2006: President Bush suggests that “defeatists” on Iraq are disloyal by contrasting them with a “loyal opposition,” stating that the American people “know the difference between a loyal opposition that points out what is wrong, and defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right.”
Ms. Perino, that’s what George Tenet might call a “slam dunk” (if he ever actually said that).