Friday, October 12, 2007

"Just Trust Us"

Hugh Hewitt: I’m going to be talking with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff after the break. Just in anticipation of that, do you think they’ve turned around public distrust of their handling of Border issues yet in the Bush administration?

Mark Steyn: I think they’re in a kind of difficult mess here, because on the one hand, they’re trying to argue that we need a kind of national security, orange alert war on terror state, and at the same time, they’re saying well, there’s nothing we can do about itinerant peasants breaching our Southern Border. Essentially, those two arguments are incompatible. One may be correct. The other may be correct. But they can’t both be right, and I think that’s the problem for Homeland Security, that you can’t be on orange alert and then just say well, 30 million people can penetrate the Border, and there’s nothing we can do about it.


"I think the American people — I hope the American — I don't think, let me — I hope the American people trust me."
—George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2002

3 comments:

Richard said...

I am no fan of Steyn as a neocon, but point to Mark on this one.

Black Sea said...

Even a stopped clock . . . .

Steyn is a clever, witty and sometimes quite valuable writer. Like you, I can't go along with his flogging of "the global war," but that doesn't mean he's wrong about everything.

I just heard him inteviewed on TV last week. My God, what an accent! If I'd have to guess, I would've said Irish, but it sounded like something he'd developed over the course of several evenings spent standing in front of a mirror accompanied by several glasses of scotch. I guess that's what happens when you move from Quebec to London to New Hamphshire. Some kind of fusion takes over.

Anonymous said...

Wow!
Whoever accused GW of not telling it like it is?