Are we safer?
One of the critical issues that all Democrats will face in the 2006 elections is the assertion that they are too soft on national security issues. It will certainly be an issue in my race, where I am running for Washington's 8th Congressional District against an incumbent, Dave Reichert, who is a former sheriff, and whose entire message last cycle consisted of "I will protect you."
I think that we spend a lot of time allowing the Republicans to ask the wrong questions, and then we attack their answers when we shouldn't cede them the questions in the first place.
They are asking the question: "Are we tough enough to finish what we've started in Iraq?"
The question that needs to be asked is: "Are we safer than we were on September 11, 2001?"
Don't cede them the question. Ask the right one, and then answer it.
The 9/11 Commission gave us a thoughtful bipartisan blueprint for how we could make ourselves safer by learning from what happened on September 11. We have failed - and a large part of that failure rests on the shoulders of my Republican opponent, Dave Reichert.
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