Harman decries the "fear card"

Tomorrow the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism will release its Congressionally-mandated report. The report's most eye-popping claim is that it is more likely than not that a nuclear or biological attack will occur somewhere in the world by 2013.

South Bay Rep. Jane Harman, though not immune to such rhetoric herself, says in a statement today that such talk amounts to playing "the fear card."

We need to educate and inform the American people, not terrify them with alarming details about possible threats to the homeland. 

Harman, who is said to be on the list of potential candidates for CIA director, goes on to praise President-elect Barack Obama:

Comments yesterday by President-elect Obama and DHS Secretary-nominee Napolitano about working more closely with America's first responders - something the Bush Administration resisted for eight years - are spot on.

Yesterday's roll-out of the President-elect's national security team signifies that very capable nominees will use the full range of US power to combat the serious terror threat.  Now it's time for the rhetoric about that threat to calm instead of inflame an anxious public.

While Harman has arguably played the fear card herself many times over the years, she has also played the fear-card card when she believes that fear is overblown or unhelpful. This most recent report is apparently in that latter category.