HunterByrd

Senator John Kyl (R-AZ)

Real Clear Politics has posted an abridged version of Kyl's September 29th rebuttal to Teddy Kennedy's bitter assault on W and his administration. Excerpt:

The Senator from Massachusetts has made a pretty vicious attack, I would say, on the President of the United States, contending that he hasn't leveled with the American people. The Senator began by reciting why, in his view, the outlook is so 'bleak', that we're 'losing the war.' I see in these remarks and others that I've heard recently a steely determination to keep hopelessness alive. That, I don't think, should be the policy of the United States.

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I conclude with this point: to those who convey a sense of panic, that everything is going badly. Those of us who support the President's policy are not saying everything is rosy. I don't know anyone who has. But as contrasted with those who create this sense of panic, the President has a vision. His commanders have a strategy. When I saw General Abizaid on television last Sunday, he didn't paint a rosy picture. It was a very realistic assessment. But he also showed a calm confidence that if we can persevere, we can prevail. And that's what he asked of the American people: To allow their military commanders as well as the Commander-in-Chief to carry out the vision here to defeat militant Islamic terrorists, wherever they are. This war has many fronts. We've fought simultaneously to try to gain support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Libyan regime, from Syria, in Yemen and the Sudan and so on. There are still some places to go. But the bottom line here is you can't just isolate one little place in the world and say we have to do that first and win every possible goal before we can do anything else anywhere else.

Kyl states what every American should discern from the partisan rhetoric gushing forth in torrents from the Dems in the election run-up.

1. There are those in this country who believe that fear will win votes; 2. There are those in this country who believe the perpetuation of a sense of hopelessness will win votes; and 3. there are people in this country who believe that bad news, however isolated or incidental, is truth enough to paint over with the broad brush of failure, and hence, win votes.

I'm referring, of course, to the Democrats. As has often been said by very astute and erudite commentators, bad news for the country is good news to them, and good news for the country is bad news to them. They are the party that puts great stock in America's dirty laundry, and they search for it to the point of nausea. Negativism. Defeatism. And hollow, ringing words...

John Edwards's Thursday night performance is a prime example.