Today is the 15th anniversary of the "June 4th Incident" as it is known in China--Tiananmen Square to us. Incredibly, the Commie party there is still prohibiting any commemoration of it and placing activists under house arrest to prevent it, and just as incredibly people are doing so in their small way anyway. Since the party is the state there, they reason that criticism of the party is bad for the state and thus unpatriotic. Sad but understandable, given their system of governance,

What is not understandable at all, given our system of government, is that anyone, let alone the House Majority Leader, would make that claim in this country. And yet that is what Tom Delay says about Nancy Pelosi calling the President incompetent. She said that Bush's handling of the war in Iraq shows "an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience, in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission without the deaths to our troops and
the cost to our taxpayers." Given the fact that they were wrong about WMD, wrong about any al Qaeda connection, wrong about the number of troops necessary to secure the country's infrastructure and borders (remember the looting and infiltration of foreign fighters?) wrong about the reception of the people, wrong about the end of major combat operations and are still unable to provide security, her position seems at least plausible.

Delay said that "her words are putting American lives at risk," and that she has "a responsibility to the troops and to this nation to show unity in this time of war." Uh, George Bush put American lives at risk with his little adventure in nation building, not Nancy Pelosi's criticism of it. And to his second point, Teddy Roosevelt said in 1918, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Sad when a major figure in American politics resembles the red Chinese government more than a venerable fore-figure of his own country and political party. But then again, Tommy D has always been a sad little figure. Happy June 4 incident day.