Meanwhile, two parties' war goes on

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats clashed over the war on terror on Thursday within hours of the disclosure of a thwarted terrorist plot in Britain, each side accusing the other of doing too little to deter the threat of attack.

"This country is safer than it was prior to 9/11," President Bush said during a campaign stop in Wisconsin. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously, we're still not completely safe, because there are people that still plot and people who want to harm us for what we believe in."

That the British arrests happened the same week the national Democratic establishment embraced an anti-Iraq war candidate elevated by grass-roots activists illustrates the complicated and constantly changing politics of national security.

This is not Cold War, East vs. West, but a cauldron of concerns on multiple fronts.

Connecticut Democratic primary voters Tuesday gave newcomer Ned Lamont a victory over three-term incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of the most hawkish Democrats on national-security and defense issues. Lieberman now intends to run as an independent.

Democrats argue that Iraq is a separate and unnecessary front in the overall war on terror, that the money and troops committed there have diverted vital resources from destroying al-Qaida and other terrorist groups around the globe.

"This latest plot demonstrates the need for the Bush administration and the Congress to change course in Iraq and ensure that we are taking all the steps necessary to protect Americans at home and across the world," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The Democrats' argument had begun gaining traction among Americans wearying of a steady roster of casualties and hearing dire warnings by U.S. generals that Iraq could descend into a sectarian civil war. Thursday's broken-up plot, which FBI Director Robert Mueller said had the "earmark of al-Qaida," could also give Democrats a fresh opportunity to point out that Osama bin Laden remains at large and major terror operations outside of Iraq are still plotting and potent.

But even before the news broke that the plot had been unraveled, Republicans were drawing hard lines on national security leading into the November elections. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said Wednesday that Lieberman's defeat "reflects an unfortunate embrace of isolationism, defeatism, and a 'blame America first' attitude by national Democratic leaders at a time when retreating from the world is particularly dangerous."

He said the modern "Defeat-ocrats" had abandoned the legacy of such strong defense Democrats as Harry Truman and John Kennedy. And Bush's defenders are sure to argue that this breakup of a major plot reinforces the fact that because Bush has put America on the offensive in the war on terror — even in Iraq — the homeland has not been attacked in nearly five years since 9/11.

In a sign that the issues will reverberate beyond this fall, potential 2008 presidential candidates weighed in on the scheme.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's office said he will activate the National Guard to help with security at Logan International Airport for the first time since the 2001 attacks. And New York Gov. George Pataki, also a Republican, said the disrupted terror operation "underscores the need for continued vigilance, intelligence gathering and cooperation among law-enforcement agencies and the public."