Republicans are whining because the Obama campaign is reminding everyone that President Obama gave the order that caught Osama bin Laden, while Mitt Romney previously had criticized President Obama's strategy for catching bin Laden. The Republicans are claiming that this is inappropriate politicizing, even though Romney's criticism of Obama's strategy was itself politicizing. The real Republican complaint isn't the politicizing of the strategy, it's that the strategy worked, thus making the politicizing by both sides a clear political win for the president. The real Republican complaint is that President Obama gave the order that caught bin Laden while the Bush-Cheney team's incompetence allowed bin Laden to get away. After the Bush-Cheney team's incompetence allowed bin Laden to inflict the worst ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Telling the truth about a successful national security strategy isn't inappropriate politicizing. Telling the truth about who wrongly criticized what turned out to be a successful national security strategy isn't inappropriate politicizing. What is inappropriate politicizing is to lie the nation into a war. What is inappropriate politicizing is to be dishonest about threats to national security in order to score political points. What is inappropriate politicizing is to manipulate public fears in order to distract public attention from what might be politically damaging. Which the Bush-Cheney team did. A lot.
For those who want or need reminding, Keith Olbermann assiduously documented the curious and creepy timing of the Bush-Cheney team's terror alerts, which Bush's own Director of Homeland Security later admitted were used dishonestly, for political purposes. Telling the truth about basic facts isn't politically inappropriate. Lying about and distorting facts is. Lying about and distorting facts in order to manipulate and frighten the public is worse. It is politically dangerous.
With every dishonest Orange Alert, the Bush-Cheney team revealed not that the security of the United States was threatened from without but that it was threatened from within— by the Bush-Cheney team.