The Daily Background

It’s a strange day in America when Dennis Kucinich and Fred Thompson seemingly agree on Osama bin Laden. Here’s Thompson:

Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson said Monday that while Osama bin Laden needs to be caught and killed, the terrorist mastermind would get the due process of law.
[…]
The remarks drew criticism from some Democratic rivals and later in the day, Thompson adopted a tougher line, saying bin Laden “ought to be caught and killed.”

On Monday, Thompson said he wasn’t suggesting that bin Laden’s death would happen immediately after his capture.

“No, no, no, we’ve got due process to go through” depending on the circumstances, he said. “I’m not suggesting those things happen simultaneously.”

That was… a little confusing (kind of like his stance on gay marriage) Here’s Kucinich:

Dennis Kucinich, champion of the Department of Peace, wouldn’t assassinate Osama Bin Laden if he had the chance.

Pressed twice during the HuffPost/Yahoo!/Slate Candidate Mashup to say whether he would take out the Al Qaeda chief, Kucinich was unequivocal.

“We’ve had air strikes all along the Pakistani border,” he told Charlie Rose. “We’ve killed lot of innocent villagers in this search for Osama din Landen. Where does it end? Do you nuke a country in order to get on person? … We cannot get into a kind of international vigilantism.”

The solution, Kucinich says, is to capture bin Laden and hold him to justice.

But what if he resists arrest? “Whatever happens, happens.”

I’m not offering an opinion on this, just noting that it’s funny that the two of them find themselves on the same page, and out of step with much of the rest of both of their parties.

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