Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd

Suddenly, Bill Safire decides that John Kerry is promoting an atmosphere of fear in order to get elected.

Wasn't Dick Cheney the one who said a couple of weeks ago that if we elect Kerry, we risk getting attacked again? Haven't you guys spent the last three years reminding us what a dangerous world we live in, tweaking the color codes and harping on "the evildoers," "what we're up against"?

Look, I know there is a very real terrorist threat. I didn't want to fly this week, but I'm going to. I am well acquainted with the odd feeling of conscious, willful fearlessness when I know intellectually that a potential disaster could occur, and I know intellectually that the odds of me becoming a target are very, very low, but that they do exist. That doesn't mean I'm going to jump every time they raise the stupid threat color level from yellow to orange. It doesn't mean I'm going to vote for you because you say "terrorist" and "threat" and "evil" over and over. I'm getting tired of it, quite honestly. And there is no question which of the two parties has promoted an atmosphere of fear for the past three years, right or wrong.

Jello said they want you to "shut up and shop." Right on to that.

This is Safire's second total strikeout in a row, following his nasty piece about Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney, fisked nicely by Andrew Sullivan in the New Republic.