Another Perfidious Reporter

Eric Lichtblau has reached star status by publishing classifed information given to him in violation of law. Steal a hundred and they put you in jail. Steal national secrets and they give you a Pulitzer. Walter Duranty must be smiling through his pain. He now has one more scoundrel to share his guilt.

The excuse that he is exposing scandals won't bear scrutiny and defies common sense. The left's opposition to this war, and worse, it's increasing attempts in the media and in the courts to render us unable to defend ourselves or take the fight to the terrorists without revealing our sources and methods, are hurting us.

The solution? Elect more conservatives, and make it clear that Republicans who refuse to focus on the main requirements, winning the war, confirming Bush's judicial nominations, cutting taxes and controlling spending, will not get support from the base either financially or in electoral support. It will be a slow process, but unless we do it, the Democrats will cease to be a serious party which will be bad for our two-party system. Only continued losses will shock them into rejecting the extreme Neo-Hippie wing who have taken over the party and returning to sane candidates and policies. Even if this fails, we'll be better off with a new system emerging where the debates are across lines that leave politics at the water's edge and support judges who understand the proper role of the judiciary in upholding democratic laws and refusing to substitute their own policy judgments for those of the people we elect to make such decisions. There need to be new ground rules for political debate, the first of which is that policies and platforms that will weaken our democracy and endanger our national sovereignty are off the table.