"You don't want to answer that question"

Would it be good for Republicans if terrorists kept trying to attack us?" ponders Republican consultant John McLaughlin, whose other clients this year have included Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Conservative Party Leader-cum-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "You don't want to answer that question. You don't want to see Americans attacked, but this is an issue where Republicans have a decisive lead. It's the one issue where the President has a net approval rating. It's got to help the Republicans when something like this happens." McLaughlin should know. One of his clients is former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, the leading Republican opponent to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and the second Republican Senate candidate to spin the UK terror bust for political gain. On the Monday after the plot was broken up, the Spencer campaign launched an ad that juxtaposed images of an airliner and Osama bin Laden with Hillary Clinton. "National Security Agency wiretaps of terrorist suspects were vital to stopping this attack," a female narrator said sorrowfully. "But Hillary Clinton opposes the Patriot Act and the NSA program that helped stop another 9/11."