Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet DNC pulls out unpeaceful tactics from the Bush years.

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On the plus side, Obama seemed as surprised and confounded as many of us are this morning. I'm sure he feels similar to how David Hyde Pierce felt upon winning the Best Supporting Actor Emmy that everyone thought would go that year to the recently deceased Phil Hartman. He doesn't really think he deserves it either, but he can't very well turn it down or chide the Nobel committee for giving it to him. His remarks show a humility and acknowledgment that the prize was about a promise for future good works that now must be delivered.

On the negative side, the DNC chairman Brad Woodhouse has responded to the various jeers from the GOP by explicitly playing the 'you're with us or the terrorists' card.

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize – an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride – unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It's no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it's an embarrassing label to claim."

Not cool, Brad Woodhouse, not cool at all. It's one thing to chide those who celebrate the American loss of the 2016 Olympics as being somewhat unpatriotic, but labeling those who disagree with the awarding of an honor to a single American citizen as 'having thrown in their lot with the terrorists' is right out of the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft play book in the 2001-2004 era. Alas, other left-leaning sites such as Media Matters and Daily Kos are jumping on the bandwagon. Apparently certain facets on the left are suffering from an irony deficiency this morning. It was a cruel, unfair, and stupid tactic in 2002 to equate opposition to the Iraq war of the general War-On-Terror strategy with siding with Al Qaeda and otherwise being 'un-American'. How very well can we say that Obama is receiving this award primarily due to his differing diplomatic approach from George W. Bush when his supporters use the same fear-baiting smear tactics that the GOP used during the previous administration?

For the record, I don't think Barack Obama deserved the award either, certainly not so early into his presidency. Does that make this bleeding-heart liberal a terrorist-sympathizer too?

Scott Mendelson