THE DISGRACE – AT 12:17 P.M. ET:  The controversy is building over the decision to treat the airline bomber as an ordinary criminal defendant, rather than a prisoner of war.

One of the first things that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up the Delta/Northwest flight over Detroit, said upon being apprehended was that there were many more like him in Yemen.  The first instinct of the president of the United States should have been to say, "I want to know all about that.  Get everything you can."

But, no.  This administration is run by left-wing lawyers who think like left-wing lawyers.  And the terrorist, who engaged in an act of war against us, isn't being treated like a prisoner of war, but like a shoplifter.  He's now all lawyered up, and isn't talking.  As a prisoner of war, he would have been subject to constant interrogation.  This man has information critical to the saving of American lives, but we aren't getting it.  His "rights," which aren't his rights at all, since he isn't an American citizen, are more important than our lives.

Senator Kit Bond of Missouri is on Fox News Sunday today, advancing the Republican position on the issue.

Bond strongly disagrees with the President's decision to charge the accused terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant. He believes we should have held him as an enemy combatant and tried him under the military commissions.

"We had the ability in the previous administration to interrogate detainees following the laws and the Constitution, not torturing them, but getting information from them. This man, Abdulmutallab, probably has more insight into possible other recruits that Al Qaeda would be sending into the United States," Bond said.

Bond warned, "This is war and its time we reacted to the war tactics."

COMMENT:  The president has taken to talking toughly in recent days, undoubtedly to make up for the earlier impression that he's a marshmallow, but so far his actions have not matched his words.  Instead, he has his troops out there criticizing the GOP for "partisanship" on this issue.

Partisanship is just fine.  That's why we have a democracy.  The Obamans have a pre 9-11 mentality.  Like most modern liberals (as opposed to traditional liberals) they're reactionaries, wanting to go back to a previous, more comfortable time.  It's entirely proper for Republicans to point this out, and take their case to the people. 

January 3, 2009