National Review Sees Hamdan as Victory for Al Qaeda

So says Robert Alt of the National Review:

The case was Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and the victorious party was Osama bin Laden’s purported personal driver and bodyguard, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Goldstein was not alone: From legal academia, to Capitol Hill, to the mainstream media, to the blogosphere, liberals have expressed undue exuberance concerning the outcome of Hamdan, and thereby reaffirmed why many Americans are reluctant to trust liberals on questions of national security.

The Supreme Court did not order the release of Mr. Hamdan. Nor did it say we should not pursue al Qaeda. What it did say was that our Constitution still matters and the concept of a fair trial is not a quaint idea. This is what we liberals are celebrating. Too bad the National Review’s view is that unless we crown Mr. Bush as King George I, Al Qaeda has won. Yes, the National Review believes we must choose between security versus respect for our values as itemized by the Founding Fathers. Some of us on the left – as well as many conservatives – think we can have both.

Alt continues with what is likely to be Karl Rove’s theme for the upcoming elections:

Despite the fact that the public generally trusts Republicans more on national-security issues than Democrats, the latter have been given a golden opportunity to capitalize on growing public disapproval of the Iraq war. But at every turn, liberals overreach, overreact, and, quite frankly, give the American people reason to distrust their judgment. Hamdan is just the latest example. While liberals enjoyed a short-lived victory before the Supreme Court, their excessive celebration is likely to bring about additional losses at the polls, cast by Americans who don’t think that the good guys won.

While Alt is simply misrepresenting what the left (and many others) have said about Hamdan, note the Rovian claim that we Democrats can’t be trust with national security. Of course, the truth is that this Administration has done a terrible job at reducing the Al Qaeda threat – as noted by Kevin Drum. We do know two things with certainty. First, the Republican Party to date has shown that we can’t trust it with our liberties. Secondly, the folks at the National Review will write ANYTHING that Karl Rove asks them to write – regardless of how dishonest and despicable it may be.