Is the political Left the true Stupid Party? I’ve been hearing versions of the following argument over the past few days. (See, for example, the blog titled The Cold Equations.)

The administration is going all out to discredit the intelligence services and neuter the War on Terror, while downgrading border & entry security. If there is another major terrorist attack, it will be a terrific blow to the Left. Everybody will be saying: “At least W kept us safe for seven years. Then this new crowd came in, dismantled the security apparatus, and we got hit again.”

From a game-theoretic point of view, the administration strategy is simply terrible. The only advantage to releasing these memos, gutting immigration control, and striking moral poses on torture — or “torture” — is to get cheers from the hard-Left base. The downside is potentially lethal to the administration (not to mention a possible several thousand Americans).

As a strategy, it’s barely even rational. The Left is what it is, though. Like the scorpion in Æsop, they can’t help themselves.