Editorial: President looks bad in his partisanship

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

In recent days President Bush has stepped up his partisan criticism of Senate Democrats on issues involving Iraq and the war on terrorism. Earlier this week at a Republican fund-raiser, Bush said the Democratic-controlled Senate is "not interested in the security of the American people." On Wednesday Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Bush should apologize for trying to politicize the rhetoric over these important issues. Daschle is right: It's outrageous for the president to suggest that Democrats don't care about national security.

For that matter, in an election year most Democrats have been reluctant to criticize the war on terrorism and Bush's policy on Iraq because they fear Republicans will label them as being soft on defense -- a fear that is turning out to be prescient. The irony is that it has been prominent Republicans, both in and out of government, who have raised pointed questions about a military invasion of Iraq and how it also might negatively affect the war on terrorism. Why isn't the president singling them out for not caring about U.S. security?

The war on terrorism isn't going as well as it was early on, and there isn't universal support -- home and abroad -- for a military invasion of Iraq. But instead of discussing the merits of an issue, Bush has resorted to partisanship in an attempt to muddy the debate. It's unbecoming of a president and he should stop the needless rhetoric now.