EDITORIAL: Boogermen under the bed

OPINION:

The Red Scare is back, only this time in another color. Beige is the new red. The frightened folks this time are not the Republicans, but the Democrats, though it’s not at all clear that the Democrats are so much frightened as villains posing as opportunists.

A fear of Communists, which was certainly legitimate, was widely mocked by the Democrats a generation ago as an obscure Republican senator in Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, sent frightened Americans looking for reds under their beds. Now certain muleheaded pundits and senators in the donkey party want to ascribe treason to anyone with a taste for vodka. There’s good reason to be concerned about Russian cyberhacking, and Vladimir Putin, though probably not as cruel as Vlad the Impaler, is about as nice as you would expect a former KGB agent to be. He makes a convenient boogerman to smear President Trump and everyone in his administration.

Michael Flynn, the president’s first National Security Adviser, was the first victim, “exposed” by a leaked conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who has emerged as the chief boogerman under Democratic beds. Chuck Schumer’s dreams were frightfully disturbed after he had coffee and a doughnut with Mr. Putin. Nancy Pelosi was photographed having dinner with the ambassador and was so frightened by the experience that she denied ever having met him. Someone might have thought she discovered a harmless spider in her bathtub.

In the media hysteria that followed his exposure as a curious visitor to Moscow, Mr. Flynn was gone from the Trump administration before he could hang his favorite photographs. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was the next target. He was accused of lying to the Senate when he said he had not communicated with the Russians as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. This accusation of lying to the Senate was concocted from an exchange with Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, leading the charge of the Democratic light brigade.

FRANKEN: “CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that, quote, “Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” These documents also allegedly say, quote, “There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump’s surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.”

“Now, again, I’m telling you this as it’s coming out, so you know. But if it’s true, it’s obviously extremely serious, and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”

SESSIONS: “Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”

The Red Scare of the ’50s was based on fear of something real, the Soviet obsession with spreading communism across the world by means both fair and foul. The villains, including collaborating American liberals, mostly Democrats, were real, too. But some of the boogeymen under the bed were not.

Grown-ups usually have learned the difference between real villains and boogeymen, but there’s a shortage of grown-ups in Washington this season. There’s no shortage of things to worry about. President Trump has many things on his plate. Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, no longer fueled by Marxist dogma but dangerous just the same, are among those things. But fear, fright and partisan hysteria have nothing to contribute to the solutions.