Look, I know this is easy pickins, but here's Michelle Malkin trying her best to paper over the false "constitutionalism" of the Mount Vernon Statement given the modern conservative movement's love for torture and disgust for due process. Essentially, Malkin wants to know that the signatories, who are supposed to be adherents to "constitutional conservatism," aren't so devoted to the Constitution that they'd want to follow it in the case of suspected terrorists. A few months ago, a group of conservatives including David Keene and Grover Norquist signed a statement supporting an approach to "preserve national security without resorting to sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition," in the name of "constitutional conservatism."
Malkin doesn't want you to get it twisted. She needs you to know that the Mount Vernon statement represents the kind of "constitutional conservatism" that jettisons precedent when its convenient, not the kind of "constitutional conservatism" that, well, conserves:
Do you agree with Keene and Norquist's views on national security and immigration enforcement?
Because in the name of “constitutional conservatism,” Keene and Norquist support the Obama/Democrat majority approach of civilian trials for terrorists.
Scary. Here's Malkin in 2004, bragging about all the terrorism convictions secured by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, in response to a column by Paul Krugman:
Oh? What about shoebomber Richard Reid? What about Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh? What about Yahya Goba, Shafal Mosed, Yasein Taher, Taysal Galab, Mukhtar al-Bakri and Sahim Alwan of Lackawanna, New York? What about Jeffrey Battle, Patrice Ford, Ahmed Bilal, Muhammad Bilal, and October Lewis of Portland, Oregon? And Mike Hawash? How about Masoud Ahmad Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Yong Ki Kwon, Donald Surratt, and Hammad Abdur-Raheem from the Washington DC area? What about James Ujaama? And Iyman Faris?
Yeah! What about them Michelle?
Look I realize that looking for hypocrisy in Malkin's writing is like looking for saltwater in the ocean. I just feel the need to remind everyone just how craven and opportunistic the recent Republican criticism of trying terrorists in civilian courts actually is.
-- A. Serwer
