Let me finish tonight with this tonight.
"Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself."
Napoleon Bonaparte is supposed to have said that. It seems the smart advice for reasonable people watching the crazy intramurals we talked about tonight. I'm referring to what neo-conservative Frank Gaffney is saying about tax avenger Grover Norquist.
According to Gaffney, who normally champions the latest war overseas, Norquist is secretly working with the enemy within, that he's doing the work of — you guessed it! — the Muslim Brotherhood.
Listen to his words and think about someone who might say them:
"I have had it as my personal burden for the past 12 years, to have been trying to warn conservatives that one of their own has been actively involved both enabling and empowering Muslim Brotherhood influence operations against our movement and our country."
He goes further. Gaffney says that it all starts with the Bush White House. Got that? The people around President George W. Bush. "That became sort of the entry point for Muslim Brothers to work their way into conservative circles, specifically to get into the Bush campaign and subsequently the Bush White House and Bush Administration more generally."
This is from the same accuser who once made and then withdrew a charge that the logo of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency bore a nefarious similarity to the Islamic crescent and star. "Something nefarious," he said, " was afoot."
And so this strange war goes one — between the questionably accountable and the seriously brutal, between the defenders of the faith and the enforcers of the conservative order. One demands that politicians make oaths of loyalty to him; the other questions the national loyalty of the one demanding the signatures.
Stick with Napoleon on this one. Just stay in the stands and watch these gladiators go at it right through the election.