Why the hysterical reaction to the Keep America Safe Internet ad asking why Eric Holder wouldn't release the names of lawyers now at the Justice Department who had done pro bono legal work for al Qaeda terrorists? Why the desperate effort to find establishment Republican lawyers to legitimize the effort to insulate Holder's Justice Department from criticism?
Because the policies of Holder's DOJ have become a political nightmare for the Obama administration.
Who says so? Democrats James Carville and Stanley Greenberg. A new poll out from their Democracy Corps (along with another liberal group, Third Way), The Politics of National Security: A Wake-up Call, shows, as they put it, "Erosion in Public's Trust of Democrats on National Security."
"There is evidence of rising public concern about the president's handing of these issues. Historical doubts about the Democratic Party on national security show signs of reviving and many voters worry the president and his administration are not dealing forcefully enough with terrorist suspects."
The poll results are worth reading in full. But here are some of the highlights.
* "The GOP continues to gain ground in a named congressional ballot, with the Democratic House candidate now narrowly lagging by 47 to 44 percent. The movement away from Democrats is especially strong among independents, and independent women in particular."
* By 41 to 44 percent, voters think the country is less safe from foreign threats and dangers than they did two years ago.
* President Obama's national security numbers have fallen since May 2009. Americans now rate Obama as better than Bush on national security by 5 points; in May 2009 they gave Obama a whopping 22-point margin. And by 51 to 44 percent, likely voters disapprove of President Obama's efforts on the "prosecution and interrogation of terrorism suspects."
* Carville and Greenberg judge that "The decline in both the presidential and Democratic approval ratings on security issues has been driven, at least in part, by strong Republican attacks on some specific policies and actions."
* And "while ratings for the president may be softening, his party is facing an even more troubling trend. When the questions move beyond the president to Democrats generally, we see that the public once again has real and rising doubts about the Democrats' handling of national security issues, as compared to their faith in Republicans. This security gap, which has roots stretching back to Vietnam, was as wide as 29 points earlier in the decade. The deficit began to close in 2006, with the Bush administration's catastrophic mismanagement of Iraq and other national security challenges. As public hopes about the Obama presidency rose and peaked, the gap all but vanished. Last May, Democracy Corps found Democrats essentially tied with Republicans (41 to 43 percent) on the question of which party would do a better job on national security. But now the gap shows signs of re-opening, with Democrats trailing by 17 points, 33 to 50 percent on which party likely voters think would do the better job on national security."
* With respect to "Keeping America safe," Democrats now trail by 14 points, up from a 5 point gap in July 2008.
And all of these results were obtained even before Holder's stonewalling on the terror lawyers at Justice became the subject of public debate. No wonder the administration's allies have been trying to change the subject to the dastardly Internet ad questioning the pro bono work for terrorists by lawyers now employed by the government, some in this policy area.
