hoekstra is a pure traitor.

Can you even begin to imagine what would have happened to a Dem who said this after 9/11?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1201287

Witnessing Hoekstra's behavior and rhetoric over the past few days has been troubling. Other than a hormonal imbalance, what else could he be suffering?

I read his fundraiser letter and I must say he uses phrases not worth the paper they are written on. He emotes a loss of the "real" America whatever that is. He barfs up trite references to "liberals" and "blame America". And he denigrates other honest Americans who do take their jobs and careers seriously even at this time of failed action that would have prevented the would-be bomber from boarding Flight 253 in the first place.

Hoestra's a dangerous joke! The need for security in a world filled with potential terror favors or condemns us all. It is not owned by any party!

Hoekstra condemns the Administration to score political points. He is truly a repugnant man! -Kevo

so, where is the opposition from his fellow congresspeople? That is the failure. he is a symptom of the whole dysfunction.

Yup. Definitely time to dust off the sedition statutes! Here's our first and most deserving candidate!

Hoekstra has an election to win, and nothing is more important for Republicans. Take a few polls that show him behind and he might start murdering people personally to prove how poorly Obama is protecting us from homicidal maniacs.

Does this mean that this dangerously ignorant man will also accepting blame on Bush's part for 9/11? I mean, if you're going to go around blaming President's, how about starting with the guy who ignored EVERY warning sign brought in front of his nose?
Oh, yeah, silly me... 9/11 happened on Clinton's watch!

Hoekstra fails to mention that he voted "no" on appropriations bill that would have increased money for explosives detection sytstems: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091228/pl_politico/31016

And this info should be sent to whoever is running against him! It is necessary to show up these idiots. I just love these fearmongering aholes that go on TV and say 'should American HAVE to become super vigilant?' HELLO? Isn't that what you were TRYING to do?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yada yada yada.

I bet he raises a ton of money from his 'base'- the know nothing, tea bagging birthers. And money, as we all know, is the mother's milk of politics.

Smokey the Bear sez: Fight fire with fire. . .

Republican overreach is their Achilles heel. They always go to the same wells (terror, race-baiting, lower taxes, etc) until they no longer produce. Terror-baiting has reached the point of diminishing returns and only committed Republicans will respond to Hoekstra's crap. I think the American people are pretty wise to this type of manipulation at this point.

Somewhere in his dark heart, Petey wishes the attack had succeeded. Now what an opportunity that would have been.

Yet another example of "liberal media bias" being a gigantic myth, and Exhibit A is the actions of the Republican Party that constantly decries it.

A politician does not do stuff like this unless he knows that there is a Beltway/media double standard that favors and protects him.

Hoekstra knows he will not be called on this, so it's up to Democrats to be screaming this into every microphone they can find. I won't be holding my breath on that one.

@Michael:

I really wish that I didn't agree with your assessment. In the time of the GOP's Party First antics, I fear that there are quite a few Republicans who secretly wish for a terror attack so they can "Take American Back", whatever that even means.

Steve you failed to focus on Hoekstra's most outrageous misstatement:"and his thousands of fans overseas."

I believe it would be much more accurate to say "Obama's millions of fans overseas.", and it probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say "Obama's tens of millions of non-American fans"

And therein lies the incredible power of your President. Americans couldn't see why he won the Nobel Peace Prize, but the rest of the world could. Americans, even self-professed liberals, underestimate the damage Bush did among so much of the world desperately wanting the US to be leader, not a vicious bully.

Sure, we share the "lists" etc. but Obama and his defenders need to make more of this terrorist boarding F 253 outside the USA.

Note also, that public participation *is* "part of the system." It certainly is part of the criminal justice system, and wasn't education passengers and telling them to be alert etc. part of the overall transportation security matrix? Napolitano was too breezy with "the system worked" but it was not a clearly false statement. She also seems a better person than, say, Chertoff and his friends.

Johhny Canuck beat me to it - yes, Pete, that's "tens of millions" of overseas fans, who think that except for the odd eyebrow-raiser, Obama is a damned good president so far. The embarrassing mouth-breather who preceded him is the one who would be lucky to number his fans in the thousands outside the U.S., and those fans would include some of the most radical fringe nutjobs those countries contain.

Americans were once legendary for not giving a tin weasel what the rest of the world thought, and it's still true that your leader should be popular at home first. However, that swaggering cowboy act was a lot easier to maintain when (a) American culture and values were still being avidly sought and copied worldwide, and (b) international cooperation was still a nice-to-have rather than a necessity to achieve American foreign-policy goals. That was before America alienated itself by invading Iraq, and precipitated a financial crisis that nearly dragged the rest of the world down with it.

The United States is still a world colossus in every respect, and will doubtless recover, given time and an absence of the factors that brought her low. Just remember that Pete Hoekstra represents the spearpoint of the synaptic burnouts who would reintroduce that swaggering chest-beating I'm-the-boss attitude that made America such an unpopular world citizen.

Though I've lived in NYC for 20 years, I grew up in Hoekstra's district and still have ties there. The area is heavily Dutch and almost entirely white, Protestant and Republican. The Dutch there are the descendants of people who left the Netherlands because they were religiously more ardent and conservative than their fellow countrymen. Religious whackery, along with racism, anti-intellectualism, and smug self-satisfaction, are the hallmarks of the breed. Until recently, this corner of Michigan was one of the few prosperous, thriving areas of the state. But with the general collapse of the Michigan economy, they are hurting as well. It would be nice to think that would make someone like Hoekstra more compassionate, but it rarely works like that. He's a prick, but I doubt he gets much push-back from his constituents. Funny thing is he got his start as a marketing manager with Herman Miller, the modern furniture manufacturer, which has long had a reputation as a progressive workplace. Go figure. Since he was actually born in the Netherlands, at least we don't have to worry about him ever becoming president.