It's worth noting this observation from Justin Elliot -- the GOP didn't freak out about failed Umar Abdulmutallab until after Tom Ridge and Dick Cheney blew the dogwhistle:
The first instance we can find on Nexis or congressional Web sites -- admittedly not comprehensive sources -- of Hoekstra, Bond, Boehner, or McConnell mentioning the issue is a statement from Hoekstra on Jan. 13, more than two weeks after Abdulmutallab was criminally charged. Hoekstra also said Dec. 30 that Abdulmutallab should have been handled as an enemy combatant, but did not mention the Miranda issue.
That's because Abdulmutallab was handled exactly the way he would have been during the Bush administration. It was uncontroversial. The GOP made a conscious decision to treat the fact that Abdulmutallab was being handled as a criminal suspect as unusual in order to hit the administration as weak on terrorism. But in case it wasn't made clear over the past eight years, there's nothing more dangerous to national security than putting political interests ahead of policy decisions.
-- A. Serwer
