Earlier today, in a post titled, "The Hysteria Spreads", Glenn Reynolds wrote that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) compared President Bush's foreign policy to the Holocaust. (And that's after George Galloway (Baathist-UK) recently made similar Godwin's Law-violating statements on Al Jazeera). Glenn Wrote that "Bush's ability to drive his opponents stark, raving bonkers is almost supernatural".

Like the Bush Derangement Syndrome that dominated in the months prior to the election, this new strain is spreading.

September will be the fourth anniversary of 9/11, and it's only about three months away. But 9/11 was only one of several attacks on this country whose origins were in the Middle East. Today, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the minority leader of the house, say that she thinks--(strike that, thinking is the wrong word, for it implies reason)--feels that we need to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in order to give America "a clean slate in the Muslim world."

Paul Mirengoff responds:

While that concept may have some applicability in therapy, there is no such thing in international relations, as anyone who has studied history for five minutes knows. And the idea of a clean slate with Muslims, a group with whom the west has clashed for something like ten centuries, is particularly ludicrous. Some of the Muslims from whom Pelosi would like to receive a clean slate are still upset about the reconquest of Spain. And then there's the small matter of the existence of Israel.

Pelosi's comment also reveals the self-hating belief held by so many on the left that Muslim antagonism towards the U.S. is our fault. If only we would avoid stepping on the Koran, all would be well. Bill Clinton was also a "clean-slater," though he was too intelligent to put it that way. Clinton's foreign policy consisted largely of running around the world apologizing for past U.S. wrongs real and imagined, and trying to help Muslims in the Balkans and in territories occupied by Israel. But instead of a clean slate, Clinton bought us the rise of al Qaeda and ultimately 9/11.

Pelosi also fails to recognize that any brownie points we might conceivably gain by closing Gitmo would be lost the first time a Muslim (aided by the MSM and liberal Democrats like Pelosi) claimed that abuse was occurring at some other facility or locale. As I have said before, if Gitmo didn't exist, our enemies and critics would have to invent it, as they basically have.

On the morning of 9/11, this was a 50-50 nation politically. Since then, the Republicans have gained a clear upper hand. That's not because Americans are happy about what's happening in Iraq or overjoyed about our economy. It's because Americans realize that the Democratic party is not completely serious when it comes to fighting terrorism. Pelosi's comment shows that one of the party's leaders isn't serious at all.

And incidentally, nice use of the leftwing echo chamber by Pelosi, to pour new gasoline on a theme whose origins have already been disowned by Newsweek (at least in the US)--but the repercussions of which continue to reverberate. To paraphrase a question others have already asked of Newsweek, would Pelosi have made those same remarks if President Kerry was residing at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue?

Update: Will Collier has an excellent suggesting for heading "recommendations" like Pelosi's off at the Khyber Pass.