I’ve been getting my fill of nighttime politics watching O’Reilly and Hannity & Colmes intertwined with a little Friends and Shania Twain concert on CMT (nobody can say I don’t have diverse interests…). They just don’t get it. They being the attack America first crowd.

First of all, in regards to the NYT story about a covert, completely legal program tracking and freezing money being transferred internationally to fund terrorist operations: will the Times please just change its slogan to, “All the secrets al Qaida’s fit to know”? Come on, guys, if all you are going to do is reveal classified programs that are useful in the War on Terror, at least be intellectually honest about it. This is getting ridiculous. Valerie Plame, who by all evidence was not a covert agent, gets her name in the press because her husband misleads the administration about what he saw in Niger, and everyone throws a fit; then Fitzmas doesn’t come after all, and Rove gets off, and the Times sees it fit to continue printing sensitive information (after revealing the NSA wiretapping program) regarding our counterterrorist programs. Give me a break.

Second of all, now Jack Murtha’s new battle cry is that the U.S. is a more grave threat to worldwide security than Iran or North Korea. Last time I checked President Bush wasn’t calling for a country to be wiped off the map. Oops, that was Iran’s leader who called for that. Last time I checked millions of people around the world counted on the United States for protection and economic prosperity. Last time I checked someone making such an absurd statement would be found on Daily Kos, not representing people in the House of Representatives.

Of course, Newt Gingrich was excellent on H&C tonight, and Alan Colmes really shouldn’t have opened his mouth. I’d take the guy more seriously if he would join most ordinary Americans and admit when the anti-Bush vitriol on the left has gone too far. He actually tried defending the Times printing the story, and completely blew off the fact that the program is fully legal. Heck, even the NYT made it clear that the program was legal, and they were the ones revealing the confidential program. Sometimes, on nights like these, I just sit back and laugh in sheer amazement… and think to myself, Colmes, Bill Keller, et al just don’t get it.