Audacity: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claims the banner of fighting terrorism

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, basking in the laudable capture of accused New York City Times Square failed bomber, Faisal Shahzad, made the laughable claim that the Obama administration has been more successful in combating terrorism than the Bush administration.  From The Hill:

“We're tough on terrorists. That’s our policy. That’s our performance. And, in fact, we've been more successful,” Hoyer said at his weekly press availability.

Former President George W. Bush’s presidency was dominated by the issue of terrorism, and Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, has taken several shots at Democrats and President Barack Obama for endangering national security.

Hoyer’s remarks Tuesday appeared designed to counterattack Republicans looking to the attempted bombing Saturday in Times Square as evidence that Democrats are not doing enough to stop terrorists.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) adopted this very line of attack on Tuesday morning through a national security speech at the Heritage Foundation, charging the Obama administration with focusing on terrorism incidents "only in limited spurts."

"With each close encounter, my fear is that the country goes on heightened alert only as long as the media tend to cover it," Cantor said.

"Equally concerning is that the administration and other elected officials tend to give these warnings due attention only in limited spurts. Many of the same critics who groused about how we failed to connect the dots prior to 9-11 are today repeating the same pattern. As a result, America is at risk of slipping into the type of false sense of security which prevailed before that September morning."

Hoyer took a direct shot at the Bush administration over Afghanistan, which he said had been ignored by the previous administration. He added that Democrats have been more successful in targeting terrorists where they come from.

“We've been more successful in Pakistan,” Hoyer said. "We're focused on where terrorism began — not began but was launched against us — in Afghanistan, which the Bush administration essentially ignored and, as a result, after seven years had a festering, worsening situation inherited by this administration.”

Hoyer also fought back against Republicans who’ve been critical of offering Miranda rights to terrorism suspects who are also U.S. citizens. He noted the Bush administration likewise issued Miranda rights to American citizens who were arrested.

Hey, Steny.  Did you get permission to actually use the term terrorism?  What happened to "man-caused disasters?"  I guess since White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs got the go-ahead to use the term, it's okay.  Your episode of grandiosity ignores the fact that the Attorney General wants to treat the 9/11 terrorists as simple criminals to be tried in federal court in Manhattan;  it ignores the fact that the Democrats did everything they could to derail the Patriot Act, the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan; it belies the reality that the White House will not release documents from the Fort Hood massacre to the U.S. Congress in spite of congressional subpoenas.  Perhaps the arrest of Shahzad will buy the Dems a few weeks of terrorist fighting adulation from the voters.

But I doubt it.