Have Republicans made 9/11 their exclusive brand?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        On the seventh anniversary of 911, the right continues to put forth the argument that President Bush's invasion of Iraq, suppression of the U.S. Constitution and torturing of suspected  terrorists have all contributed to our not being attacked since.
       Maybe. Maybe not.

       Islamic extremists bombed New York's World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, then again, of course, on September 11, 2001. That was slightly less than eight and a half years from one attack to the other. And that had nothing to do with any national, coordinated effort to make sure that the Towers--and America overall was safe.

       So, the argument that the Bush administration has kept us safe for the past seven years doesn't hold water--especially when you consider how incompetent it's been on the economy, the capture of Osama bin Laden, Hurricane Katrina and a list of other crisis too long and too depressing to revisit.

     Not long after the 911 national tragedy, Bush, Dick Cheney, Rudy Giuliani and other Republicans car-jacked it and have been claiming it's all theirs to make sure it never happens again. You saw their self-styled, self-serving manipulation of it during the 2004 elections via the Politics of Fear.  You saw it again at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. You've already been given a sneak preview of what's to come in the early stages of John McCain's "Country First" campaign.

      MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, on his show, Countdown, served up a powerful commentary last night. It runs 8:15. It's worth every second.