The Biscuit (Or Do We Really Want Democrats in Control of Nuclear Weapons?)

Ah, the good old days when Democrat leadership was riding high, when the economy was booming, basking in the post Cold War glow when America was respected and loved, when Yassir Arafat was the most frequent foreign sleepover guest in the White House (can’t you just imagine the pillow fights and related hijinks!), when terrorists were killing hundreds of Americans every year around the world, more or less unnoticed, and almost destroyed the World Trade Center, yet were treated as common criminals, and when Osama Bin Laden was offered, repeatedly, to Bill Clinton on a silver platter, a platter he declined. But above all, who can forget the trademarked Democrat foreign policy acumen and leadership displayed by the aforementioned President Bill I-feel-your-pain-and-other-assorted-parts Clinton when he lost, for several months, the “Biscuit,” the card on which was printed the nation’s nuclear access codes. That’s right, the POTUS actually lost the codes that he was required to carry with him 24/7/365, the codes without which he could not access America’s nuclear arsenal.

This was first reported seven years ago in Dereliction of Duty, Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson’s (USAF Ret.) book about his years in the Clinton White House carrying the nuclear “football,” the briefcase carried by a military officer, always within reach of the POTUS, containing the means to authorize the release of nuclear weapons. The Biscuit allows access to the football. Without the codes written on the Biscuit, America is disarmed. The story has been recently resurrected by ABC News and other news outlets when it appeared in a recently published book, Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton. The best (as in most horrifically appalling) part, according to Patterson and Shelton, is that Clinton concealed the fact that the biscuit was missing for months, only grudgingly admitting to Patterson that he couldn’t remember the last time he saw it. Suffice it to say that Lt. Col. Patterson’s book, and his followup book Reckless Disregard, paint a picture both disgusting and frightening to those who care about America’s leadership and national security.

Anyone surprised that Democrats would prove themselves incapable of being trusted with national security surely deserve the Louis Renault Award. Louis Renault, for those who haven’t seen the Humphrey Bogart classic film Casa Blanca, was the Police Captain who approached Bogart’s Rick, the owner of Rick’s, and declared himself “Shocked, shocked!” to learn that gambling was taking place at Rick’s--moments before his gambling winnings were delivered to him.

This particular case has also resurrected a story from the administration of the greatest ex-president in American history, Jimmy Carter (if you don’t believe he’s the greatest ex-president, just ask him. Actually you don’t have to; he’s telling anyone who will listen). It seems that Mr. Carter too lost the Biscuit, sending it to the cleaners in his suit. “Hi. This is Joe at Joe’s One Hour Cleaning? I’d like to order a nuclear strike on my mother-in-law in Pittsburgh, please. What’s that? Oh yeah, I got the codes right here...” Whether this oversight was due to the stress of being the only President in history to have been attacked while in a rowboat by a swimming, kamikaze rabbit remains lost in the tides of time, or at least in the murky depths of the pond on Carter’s peanut farm where the traumatic rabbit attack took place.

Fast forward to the present where there is much speculation about President Barack Obama’s political fortunes. Clueless pundits wonder at endless length about his political flexibility should the Democrats find themselves slapped even more senseless than usual by the electorate on Nov. 2. You know, the electorate who are fearful, illogical, who can’t appreciate the miracles being worked on their behalf by Mr. Obama, the electorate who cling to God, guns and hate those who aren’t like them, like, you know, Democrats? That electorate?

The short answer is that Mr. Obama is fundamentally incapable of moderating because it would be a repudiation of everything he is: A doctrinaire Marxist. This is hardly news to those who have actually taken the time to research Mr. Obama’s past and who have paid attention to his statements and actions as President. No Louis Renault awards for them.

As exhibit “A” consider the latest in his many Marxist influenced foreign policy debacles: The Mid East peace process. According to Jackson Diehl writing for the Washington Post, it was Mr. Obama who sabotaged the newest round of talks between the Palestinians and Israel by independently demanding that Israel stop building homes in its settlements. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during an interview on Israeli television October 17 said: “When Obama came to power, he is the one who announced that settlement activity must be stopped. If America says it and Europe says it and the whole world says it, you want me not to say it?” Abbas confirmed what has been suspected for a year: It was not Abbas or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that demanded a settlement freeze that has derailed the talks, but Mr. Obama. Even Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad recently said that future settlement construction would have no effect on the talks or any potential Palestinian state. When the settlement moratorium imposed by Mr. Obama expired on Sept. 26, he called for its extension during his September address to the UN General Assembly. This made it impossible for Mr. Abbas to drop the issue and has likely doomed the peace talks.

It’s not hard to predict Mr. Obama’s complete lack of flexibility, but for those who might need a bit more evidence, let’s take a quick look at his overall foreign policy performance. While this list is by no means all inclusive, it betrays an alarming tendency toward supporting Marxists and terrorists, betraying and insulting allies, and acting against America’s interests.

(1) Among Mr. Obama’s first acts upon taking office was to return the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office since 9-11, a gift of the British Government.

(2) When Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid his first visit to Mr. Obama, the traditional diplomatic exchange of significant gifts was somewhat lopsided. The British provided a pen set made from the timbers of a vessel important in ending the slave trade. Mr. Obama provided a set of American movies of the kind one might find in any WalMart. But that’s not the best part. European DVD players use a different format than American players. The DVDs were not only cheap and tacky, they were useless.

(3) When Mr. Obama met the Queen of England, he provided a personal gift: An iPod. An iPod loaded with his speeches. We’re lucky to have avoided a declaration of war by the British.

(4) Mr. Obama’s serial bows to foreign leaders.

(5) When the Honduran Government and Supreme Court upheld their Constitution, democracy and the rule of law in ousting their president who violated Honduran law in the process of a Marxist takeover, President Obama sided with and supported...wait for it...the Marxists!

(6) Mr. Obama’s betrayal of our Eastern European allies regarding missile defense.

(7) Mr. Obama’s feckless threats and pleas to the Iranians to pretty please stop building nuclear weapons, or this time we’ll think harder about begging the UN for even more ineffective, meaningless sanctions. Really, if you don’t meet the next deadline, we mean it! Hey, quit laughing!

(8) Mr. Obama’s shabby treatment of Mr. Netanyahu at the White House when he walked out on him, essentially saying “If you change your mind, I’ll be around,” and did not serve him dinner. Horrendously bad relations with Israel were later explained away by White House spinners as a failure of “messaging.”

(9) Mr. Obama’s feckless, continuing arms concessions to Russia, whose leaders must be amazed at their good fortune to find at least a four year window where they can indulge their expansionist, totalitarian designs with no threat of American intervention.

(10) Mr. Obama’s insistence on returning to the good old days when terrorist murderers were treated as civilian criminals.

(11) Oh yes, let’s not forget Mr. Obama’s resolute prosecution of one of America’s most cruel and relentless enemies: Arizona.

Let’s round out a brief, incomplete list with Mr. Obama’s reflexive support of a terrorist government and its people who train their children to hate and kills Jews and celebrate their suicide bombing deaths, and his reflexive hostility toward one of America’s best allies and the only stable democracy in the Middle East, Israel.

To those who imagine that Mr. Obama possesses the ability, or the inclination, to moderate his views, views that branded him the most leftist Senator prior to his run for the presidency, perhaps a trip to Rick’s is in order. Like the good Captain Renault, they too can be shocked, shocked! when Obama leaves America’s rudder jammed firmly to the left after Nov. 2.

Americans are finally seeming to realize, in ever increasing numbers, what was once commonly understood and accepted: It’s never a good idea to put Democrats in charge of national security (or anything else, but that’s another article for another day).

Has anyone checked to see if Mr. Obama has misplaced the Biscuit? If he has, maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all. He might decide to use our arsenal against Arizona; he certainly won’t use it against our actual enemies.