Republican rhetoric against John Kerry has been increasing in intensity and viciousness. The most recent meme being spread has been that Kerry is basically a traitor and that voting for Kerry means voting for the terrorists to win. Is this really what passes for acceptable political discourse today?

In The Washington Post, Dana Milbank writes:

On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry." On Fox News, Hatch said Democrats are "consistently saying things that I think undermine our young men and women who are serving over there."

On Sunday, GOP Senate candidate John Thune of South Dakota said of his opponent, Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle: "His words embolden the enemy." Thune, on NBC's "Meet the Press," declined to disavow a statement by the Republican Party chairman in his state saying Daschle had brought "comfort to America's enemies."

On Saturday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.) said at a GOP fundraiser: "I don't have data or intelligence to tell me one thing or another, [but] I would think they would be more apt to go [for] somebody who would file a lawsuit with the World Court or something rather than respond with troops." Asked whether he believed al Qaeda would be more successful under a Kerry presidency, Hastert said: "That's my opinion, yes."

Since it's at least logically possible that Kerry could win, I wonder who these people think they are going to work with a Kerry administration — especially when it comes to terrorism issues? These aren't a few anonymous hacks writing on the web, they are supposed to be responsible political leaders. Perhaps they don't plan on working with Kerry? If he wins, perhaps their plan is to simply stall and interfere in order to make Kerry look bad. Of course, if they do that then they themselves will only be fulfilling the predictions they make for Kerry.

An even more explicit accusation of treason came from Mark Simone, a radio show host. On CNN's "Gimme a Minute" segment of American Morning, September 24, 2004, Simone compared John Kerry to Tokyo Rose. According to Simone, Tokyo Rose always focused on three things: the war is going worse than the government is admitting, that this is the "wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time," and that the war was only launched in order to help American corporations.

The fact that some or all of these things are or at least are arguably true doesn't seem to matter — the mere fact that they are brought up is what qualifies as treason. When speaking the truth as you see it becomes treason, America is in serious trouble — and when people who spout such things are considered acceptable for a news organization like CNN, things are worse than we think.

Of course, Tokyo Rose was eventually cleared of all wrong-doing because her original conviction has based upon perjured testimony. Perhaps that is what Simone means: John Kerry is unfairly accused of treason by people who simply disagree with him? Yeah, right.

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• 2004 Elections
• Election Polls
• George W. Bush
• John Kerry
• War on Terrorism