Thomas Hawk

Greg Sargent:

Wow. Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton are now thrusting themselves into the raging fight over the White House’s request for Congressional cash for the International Monetary Fund, demanding in a letter that GOP leaders back the funding or put our security at risk.

I’ve obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent to GOP leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Dem leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, though the obvious targets are the Republicans, who have opposed the IMF funding. Gates and Clinton significantly up the stakes, saying that the IMF funding would reduce the threat of terrorism.

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"Financial hardships and poverty breed desperation, which helps terrorist networks to attract new recruits with messages of hate, violence and intolerance. IMF financing reduces this threat by reducing economic instability in vulnerable states."

That would be slightly more meaningful if the administration wasn’t stonewalling Maxine Waters’ attempts to make sure the money actually goes to poor countries, rather than to European banks who need to cover their own bad mortgage losses.

This is Clinton’s encore to her duet with Lindsay Graham where they harmonize about the terrorist victory in the wake of the release of the detainee photos.

And then Boehner and McConnell jump in singing that THEY own terrorism, and you have a barbershop quartet.

Demagoguing terror for fun and profit!