GOP Rep. Joe Barton Thinks He's Waging War Against POTUS

It's almost impossible to imagine what would happen if a Democratic member of Congress had said they wanted to wage war against President Bush. It's even more impossible to imagine what would have happened if the entire Democratic caucus had envisioned itself as waging a battle for the struggle of freedom against the Bush administration.  One slip of the tongue that President Bush was wrong would have landed anyone in the cross hairs of Patriotic watchdogs.  A mention that he was an enemy of America and that you are going to wage war against him would have been incomprehensible.

Yet today, now that George Bush and his failure of leadership is gone, it's perfectly acceptable to not only rebuke the president but to also suggest he is an enemy of the country.  It's perfectly acceptable for Republicans, the very same people that would have yelled and screamed at anyone disagreeing with Bush, to routinely call the President of the United States an enemy and use violent combative language to describe how the new president should be handled.

In a PowerPoint slideshow distributed to Republican Members, Rep. Joe Barton declares that he is waging war against the Obama administration.

"Speaker Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the Obama Administration," says Barton's presentation, which was obtained by The Huffington Post.

"Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley," it goes on.

"I want to be George Patton - put anything in my scope and I will shoot it," promises Barton.

The slide is headlined: "What's in Store for the Obama Administration."

Incredible. Just truly incredible. Put aside for a second that Joe Barton has never seen an ounce of combat in his entire life. He has never once worn a military uniform or fought anything. Despite being of prime fighting age during Vietnam, a chance when he could have really proven his George Patton skills, he ran and hid. To hear Barton talk now, some forty years after failing to actually fight for his country, Barton is a bad ass general that wants to fight an enemy in which he says he can "hit the ground running" based on his experience.  Based on his actual personal history, running during wartime is actually something he does know something about.

Put that aside for a second.

Put aside the fact that Boehner, despite being of prime fighting age during Vietnam, sought a discharge for a bad back.  A time when his country needed him most, he ran and hid crying about a bad back that has never stopped him from playing golf. Put aside, too, that Eric Cantor has never once served in the military or experienced one minute of combat.  But now, in the Republican Fantasy World, these three men who have never led men in battle, or much less seen war unless it's on their Fox News teevee sets, really believe that they are three of this country's greatest generals.  Where in any of those three's past is their anything that remotely resembles Ike, Patton or Bradley?  It's insane!

So let's put aside the complete idiocy of just how ridiculously hypocritical the Republican Party has become.  Instead let's focus on who in their right mind gets to behave this way and get away with it.  In what world does an elected member of government get to declare the president an enemy that must be fought and destroyed not get held accountable?  I'm not suggesting that Republicans, or anyone for that matter, can't disagree with the president.  I'm only saying let's hold them accountable to their rhetoric.  If they really get to pretend they are Great Warrior Patriots equal to three of the greatest wartime generals to ever serve, then make them accountable to it.  They should be treated exactly the same way a Democrat would be if he or she did the same thing.

No more special treatment.  No more pretending.  You own it.  You own this fixture of modern Americanism.  If you really see yourself as a Freedom Fighting Revolutionary, then let's do it.  If you really want to bump peter heads to a make-believe world where three men who have never come within a few thousand miles of combat get portrayed as Brave Freedom Fighting Generals, more power to you.  But we aren't going to do it your way any more.