The Big Question: Are Democrats better on anti-terrorism efforts?

Bernie Quigley, Pundits Blog Contributor, said:
I’d have to say that whoever is doing it, and it seems non-partisan, they are doing an extraordinary job. Much of the criticism, particularly of John Ashcroft’s Justice Department, seemed in fact abstract. On the ground they seem focused and not intend on abusing individual rights. I’m not sure the mainstream of public opinion has caught up to this, possibly because the tragedy of 9/11 hasn’t fully sunk it. The requirements for living are somewhat different today; it is a different America and – perhaps the silver lining in the dark cloud – a better one. New York’s finest this past week once again revealed an indefatigable American spirit that recalled the fire fighters at the Trade Centers after 9/11. I travel light and have only two news photos in my desk which represent the turning of the times in my 63 years. One is a Buddhist monk in flames in Saigon. The other is a photo of a New York City fire fighter climbing up the stair well of the World Trade Centers while the people are pouring down in terror. A hero’s walk to certain death.

Brad Delong, professor of economics at the UC Berkeley, said:
Of course. The Democrats aren’t manufacturing new terrorists by the boatload every day …

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com, said:

One would hope that, when it comes to fighting a deadly threat to America and Americans, our elected officials are not playing partisan games. But I guess that’s too much to expect from career politicians like Mr. Hoyer.

Damon N. Spiegel, entrepreneur and writer, said:

Claiming that Democrats are doing a better job than the GOP or vice-versa is nothing more than cheap rhetoric.  Terrorism is something that both parties want to eliminate.  In fact, terrorism is what most of the world wants to eliminate and I’d imagine every person would do whatever it takes to do so.  If we wanted to get nitpicky we would have to examine all the possible events that have occurred since 9/11 and determine to what extent these Islamic Extremists were near success and then determine what covert actions prevents it. The data required to truly determine who is doing a better job is data we simply would not have access to nor should we.  The press and media would exploit this information, provide it to the future Extremists and make our future fight all that more difficult.

The reality is that the Democrats favor personal liberties and are willing to give Terrorists protection under the constitution while most conservative individuals believe that they should have no protection under the constitution and the government should be able to do whatever is necessary to apprehend them. These are different strategies let’s just hope that common sense prevails and we continue to support both parties and our law enforcement professional to apprehend these cowards before a tragedy happens.  Both parties should avoid making this a political debate and allow the same “organizations” which are green-lighted to take action in Afghanistan and Pakistan and have been very effective of late to do the same here in the United States.  Our parties should fund them, support them and praise them.  The best action of our Democrats and the GOP is to back away and let the professionals do what they do best.

Hal Lewis, professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, said:

By any rational standard the defense of our country against its enemies ought to be the exemplar of bipartisanship. Not all Moslems are terrorists, but most terrorists are Moslems, and the Administration (democrats) is passionately devoted to making friends of the Moslem world. This leads inevitably to a lack of toughness and clarity of purpose in the democrats, which weakens our country. That has not been true for a number of previous Democratic administrations, but it is for this one, so it is not necessarily a party thing, but is clear nonetheless in the here and now.
 

Peter Navarro, professor of economics and public policy at U.C. Irvine, said:

Huh???????  Both parties suck at this, and we’re lucky we haven’t had another attack.   Too much bureaucracy and too little inter-agency cooperation almost a decade after 9/11.