When Paula Brooks isn't avoiding the 12th District, she's at Talking-Terrorism School

Terrorists are bad.

That much we can agree on.

So how confident will voters in the 12th congressional district be in voting for a candidate that needs special schooling to learn how to use the proper rhetoric necessary to sound tough on terrorism?

To combat the problem [of being perceived as soft on terror], House Democrats have asked Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, and California Rep. Jane Harman, a leader on intelligence issues in the House, to help lead training sessions on the issue.

[...]

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) attended one of Harman’s sessions when he was running for office in 2008. Now the president of the Democratic freshman class, he helped lead a session for other Democrats late last month. He said his party has to “avoid the trap of looking soft and weak” and that “there are strong adverbs, adjectives and verbs as opposed to weak.”

One example he offered: “I’m going to fight for American interests abroad” as opposed to “I’m going to defend American values.”

And who was a part of this school? Pat Tiberi's opponent, Paula Brooks, of course.

But amazingly, it isn't the fact that Brooks has no idea what to think on terrorism that surprises me most. It's that her attendance means she actually is still trying to make the 12th congressional district competitive.

Maybe someone should wake her up.