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Friday, Oct 9, 2009 2:55 PM UTC

DNC: GOP siding with terrorists over Nobel

Democrats take an unusually hard line against criticism of the president's Peace Prize

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Topics: Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, War Room,

The Democratic Party has been hitting its opponents pretty hard recently over their criticism of President Obama. When his trip to Copenhagen, made in an attempt to secure the 2016 Summer Olympics for Chicago, was unsuccessful, the message from the Democratic National Committee and the White House was that critics were being unpatriotic. With Obama’s having won the Nobel Peace Prize, and with people from across the political spectrum greeting the news skeptically, the DNC took things to a whole new level.

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse said in a statement referring to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s criticism of the award. Woodhouse continued:

Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize – an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride – unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.

Woodhouse was able to make the claim of a tie to the Taliban and Hamas because the groups have come out slamming the Nobel Committee’s decision. “The Nobel prize for peace? Obama should have won the ‘Nobel prize for escalating violence and killing civilians’,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Still, the statement is more than a little ironic. Obama appears to have won the award at least in part because he’s not former President George W. Bush. But here’s the DNC getting its rhetoric straight from the Bush playbook circa 2002-2004.

Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

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