Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham -- who once <A href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/05/05/right-wing-media-figures-reject-obamas-call-for/179380">accused opponents</a> of the Iraq invasion of trying to "subvert America" -- is now blasting the <Em>The Wall Street Journal</em> for beating the "war drums" because the editorial board expressed support for President Barack Obama's use of drones.
March 10, 2013

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham -- who once accused opponents of the Iraq invasion of trying to "subvert America" -- is now blasting the The Wall Street Journal for beating the "war drums" because the editorial board expressed support for President Barack Obama's use of drones.

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked Ingraham what she thought of the split within the Republican Party after Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) criticized Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) filibuster of CIA Director John Brennan over speculation that President Barack Obama might target citizens inside U.S. borders with drone strikes.

"John McCain, Lindsey Graham and The Wall Street Journal editorial board, extremely dismissive of Rand Paul," Ingraham pointed out. "Wall Street Journal said, 'Calm down;' said, 'You don't have to do more than fire up impressionable libertarians in their college dorms.'"

"I thought to myself, when is the last time a Republican managed to capture the imagination of young people, some people on the left, Mitch McConnell, John Thune, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio?" she added. "There was a wide range of Republicans and people on the left who said, 'You know something? I think the attorney general should be able to answer a simple question [about the use of drones] with an unequivocal yes or no.' He couldn't do that, and Rand Paul served an enormously important function during that filibuster. He wasn't waving his hands and ranting and raving, contrary to what the Journal condescendingly said."

Liberal contributor Juan Williams argued that the targeted killing policy needed to have transparency and judicial review, but Paul was "grand standing" with his filibuster.

"But the fact is that no U.S. citizen has ever been targeted or killed by a drone on U.S. soil," Williams explained. "And secondly, the Constitution gives the president authority to go after a U.S. citizen if that U.S. citizen is somehow involved in colluding with an enemy of the United States."

"I just want to say that I love the fact that we have the hawk, Juan Williams, and the dove, Laura Ingraham," Wallace snarked.

"I'm not the dove, I'm the constitutionalist," Ingraham grumbled.

In a follow-up segment posted to the Fox News website, Ingraham continued her attack on The Wall Street Journal.

Wallace wondered if the president should have the authority to kill a hypothetical U.S. citizen with radiological "dirty bombs" in Montana who was working with a foreign group to lead an insurrection against the government.

"Can I have some more details, please?" Ingraham asked. "I mean, is it a tea party person?"

"It doesn't matter," Wallace insisted.

"So the ACLU, Amnesty International, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin -- who stood up and said, 'I actually support the fact that you're raising these questions' -- we do have a Constitution, guys!" Ingraham exclaimed. "I know the war drums are always beating over at The Wall Street Journal!"

"You guys want to be in a perpetual state of war! No, we're at a perpetual state of war!"

But the conservative radio host's newfound anti-war mindset seemed to a major shift from her positions during George W. Bush's presidency.

In her 2003 book Shut Up and Sing, Ingraham said that liberals were opposing the Iraq war in a "quest to subvert America." And in 2006, she accused the media of being "invested in America's defeat" because they had focused on the negative aspects of the Iraq war.

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