Posted on: Friday, September 10, 2004

EDITORIAL
Terror threat no place for politics

Vice President Dick Cheney has come in for criticism — and we'd argue rightfully so — for an unfortunate remark he made several days ago involving Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and terrorism.

If Democrats win the presidency, Cheney said, "the danger is we'll get hit again."

The only fair way to translate that is: A vote for Kerry is a vote for more terrorism.

Shameful.

Unfortunately, the Kerry-Edwards team cannot get on too high a horse about all this.

After all, they have repeatedly argued that they would do a better job in the war against terrorism than the incumbents.

How does one translate that? Would a fair reading of the Democrats' criticism be that a vote for Bush over Kerry would subject the country to greater danger from another terrorist attack?

The plain fact is that the threat of terrorism is not fertile ground for anyone's political gamesmanship.

There is room for disagreement over what techniques, approaches and focus are most appropriate. But to suggest that the safety of the American public in the face of a terrorist threat rests on a political decision, a vote, is unworthy.