President Harry S Truman, a Democrat who was strong on national security, was famous for saying of his GOP opponents "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell."

Well, today's New York Times editorial page bemoans the fact that the GOP has been attacking Democrats over national security.

The man who beat Mr. Lieberman, Ned Lamont, lives in Greenwich, a suburb full of commuters who work in New York high-rise buildings. They are completely aware of the way international terrorism can come crashing down on an ordinary family, leaving the survivors stunned and bereft. A dozen of their neighbors died at the World Trade Center. They will never be able to go back to a “pre-9/11 mind-set.”

But that did not seem to deter Mr. Lieberman from scoring a cheap sound bite yesterday. Leaving Iraq, as Mr. Lamont advocates, “will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” he said. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

There's the last of the "Scoop" Jackson Democrats -- now an independent -- giving the Times and their cohort the truth, and they think it's Hell.

How many times does Osama bin Laden have to repeat the basis for his belief that America is a paper tiger? We cowered as the Iranians took our diplomats hostage ... we ran from Lebanon after the Marine Corps barracks bombing ... we ran from Somalia after the Black Hawk Down tragedy.

And Lieberman is playing politics for pointing out -- and the Times editorial makes it clear that in needs to be repeatedly pointed out -- that if we run from Iraq, leaving it in chaos, that it will further embolden the terrorists?

Democrats will again complain, as the midterm election nears, that the GOP is trying to "scare voters" by raising the terrorist threat level or merely talking about national security. But voters need to be a little scared. They need to be reminded that elections have consequences, and the consequences of Democrat victory is more Ned Lamonts and fewer Joe Liebermans.