Bhutto: Already a political football

Tragedy in Pakistan today as, sadly, the inevitable happened: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a cowardly little extremist who then blew himself up. Already, Ron Paul is on Fox, whining that this means we should keep our noses out of Pakistan as well as every other country -- that nuclear arsenal that could fall into the hands of Islamists, Ron, would definitely not stop at Pakistan's borders, nor does the tug-of-war between moderates and extremists. And on the campaign trail, comments generally looked like a competitive joust of who knew Bhutto best, who knew her longer (Clinton said she did), yadda yadda. The AP story on candidates' reactions is a bit gentler than the TV coverage, but still the campaigns are spinning the assassination into an opportunity to state that they're the best at foreign policy, dealing with the Islamic threat, and just best to be president in general:

"At a high school in Lawton, Iowa, on Thursday, Clinton said she had come to know Bhutto during the former prime minister's years in office and her time in exile and was "profoundly saddened and outraged" by the assassination.

In a world of such violence and threats, Clinton said, 'it certainly raises the stakes high for what we expect from our next president. I know from a lifetime of working to make change.'

Giuliani said the assassination underscored a need for the U.S. to increase its efforts to combat terrorism.

'Her murderers must be brought to justice, and Pakistan must continue the path back to democracy and the rule of law,' Giuliani said in a statement. 'Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere — whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi — is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the terrorists' war on us.'"

Can't, for the moment, anyone just express their sympathies and leave the footballing for another day? I guess this is what Bhutto gets for dying so close to the Iowa caucuses.

Comments

[Senthil]

People like Ms. Bhutto stand a head and shoulders above most politicians. Risking and giving your life for democracy is a kind of courage rarely seen in this world. This is truly a great loss.

I couldn't give a damn what the primary candidates think of the situation, or how they're capitalising on this grim tragedy. It's what I would have expected from them. And sorry Bridget; for the most part I enjoy your blog, but if Ms Bhutto has been turned into a political football, you just gave it another kick.
You should have just stuck to expressing your sympathies.

[W.C. Varones]

Huckabee claims responsibility:

http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2007/12/evil-mastermind-behind-bhutto.html

[Bridget]

You've got to be kidding, Senthil -- how am I playing political football by complaining about candidates -- LEFT and RIGHT -- doing so??

[Senthil]

It's not about left or right. You took your shots at Clinton and Paul, and even though the excerpt list Guiliani, it's not as if there's a complaint about him.
I'm pretty sure you're not a fan of Paul or Clinton, hence the footballing.
As I said, I don't care about the very predictable and totally expected capitalising on death that any and all politicians would take in a race for nomination, but to reiterate your own point, you should have stuck to just expressing your sympathies.

[Bridget]

Would it make you feel better if I went back and listed all of the footballing responses from every single candidate, expanding upon the bipartisan examples offered in a hasty post on a busy news day? Obviously the implication that I meant *everybody* using the death for political gain was misguided flew over your head. You'd prefer to assume that my motivations were underhanded partisanship in the guise of sympathy. And that's really heartless and unfair.

[Senthil]

Ok, ok, let's stop ourselves from jumping over the edge. All I was saying is that if you wanted to write something about Bhutto, make it about her. Politicians by nature will capitalise on death. It's just about the most predictable thing in the aftermath of tragedies.
I don't think it was underhanded partisanship on your part, I think it was just looking in the wrong direction at a time when (in my opinion) we've just faced one of the biggest losses in the war on terror in the past several years.
I apologise if I was being heartless or unfair.