Al Qaeda, Mr. Bush, Al Qaeda. They're Back.

It seems the White House has forgotten, but Al Qaeda has not. They're back, and all the talk and blame and distraction that the White House throws at the Democrats does not refute the fact that Bush has taken his eye off the ball. Osama bin Laden is still sending out his videos. Worse, he is still sending out his henchman.

Five years after 9/11, our nation is no more safe and, in fact, finds itself even weaker than before the attacks. For goodness sake, we can't even subdue a poor country with fewer people than Florida. This is the big, bad USA?

The Republicans are going to return this election year to the same tactics that worked in 2002 and 2004 -- scare the American people into believing that the Democrats will bring terrorists into your backyard. They are already doing this in their post-Connecticut primary spin, arguing that the Democrats nominated an anti-security peacenik who won't fight back. They're also doing it to Jack Murtha. And they are going to do it to every Democratic challenger in every House and Senate race around the nation.

Truth is, Bush has not fought back at the real enemy. He picked a fight with Iraq that he said was going to be easy. He picked a fight that Cheney said would end with flowers and cheers by those the USA liberated. But they didn't pick a fight with those who really committed the crime.

What happened to the guys who blew up the World Trade Center? Well, they're now in the toothpaste business and the hair gel business and the baby formula business.

Weaker and less safe, Mr. Bush, weaker and less safe.

And the American people now know it.