Sen. Mark Udall (D, Colorado) has no right to exploit murdered journalists.

He simply does not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcLYL5_ZHg

In the course of an hour-long debate with Gardner in Grand Junction, Colo., [Mark] Udall said that “ISIL does not present an imminent threat to this nation.” He cited his membership on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee to substantiate that assertion, and he even invoked the names of the American journalists murdered at the hands of the Islamic State in the course of his pleas for restraint.

“I can tell you,” Udall said, “Steve Sotloff and James Foley would tell us, don’t be impulsive. Horrible and barbarous as those executions were, don’t be impulsive, come up with a plan to knock ISIL back.”

Actually, Mark Udall cannot tell us that, because Steve Sotloff and James Foley were brutally murdered by Islamist fanatics that got their chance when the Democratic party that Mark Udall is a part of abandoned Iraq to its fate. Mark Udall’s assumption here that he – or any other Democrat – has the right to nonchalantly name-drop the dead like this goes beyond ‘crass’ and lands smack dab in the middle of ‘obscene.’ But what’s even more obscene?  …Contemplating what Mark Udall will say when ISIL ritually murders the next Western journalist.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Note that I am not even bothering to try to shame Mark Udall over all the Middle Easterners that ISIL assaults, rapes, and/or kills on a regular basis.  I mean, I think that they’re human beings whose lives have intrinsic value, but I have come to the conclusion that apparently this sentiment is not shared by the senior Senator for Colorado.

PPS: Cory Gardner for Senate. His reaction to this?  Just the general one you’d expect from an essentially decent human being:

“Americans have watched in horror in recent weeks as two of our fellow countrymen have been brutally executed by terrorists, and it’s outrageous that Senator Udall would put words into the mouths of dead Americans. Furthermore, it’s deeply troubling that he views a terrorist organization like ISIL as not an imminent threat to America.”