Taking hostages is the talk of terrorists

In his Thursday column, Henry Benjamin Winkler called on former Rep. Jim Leach to “call Vice President Joe Biden on the carpet” for Biden's saying that the Republicans “acted like terrorists” during the debt ceiling debacle. Why should Leach do that?

After all, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently likened the GOP's refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless it got what it wanted to taking a “hostage” and stated that the GOP may take the debt ceiling “hostage” again in the future. An organization that is willing to repeatedly take someone or something hostage in order to achieve political goals it can't otherwise achieve is by definition engaging in a form of terrorism. No apology is needed.

And now Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas is calling for the GOP to impeach President Barack Obama, because doing so would “tie up” the president and, they hope, paralyze the administration. Apparently their next step is to take the entire executive branch of the United States government hostage as well.

Cary A. Wiesner

West Branch