GOP scorns reports of Hawaii attack

(AP) Dec. 8, 1941 -- Republican leaders in Congress denounced reports of a Japanese airstrike on Hawaii yesterday as "Fake News." 

According to Senate minority leader Charles McNary (R-Ore.), "There may have been some minor explosions of unknown cause in and around Honolulu.  Possibly provocations by left-wing terrorists.  President Roosevelt has seized upon these reports as a justification for war with Japan, a war whose only purpose would be detracting attention from the manifold failures of his socialist "New Deal."

Other Republican members of Congress were less restrained.  "The fake lamestream media are a tool of the the pro-Soviet, pro-Communist, anti-American leaders who make up the Roosevelt cabal," according to Joseph Martin (R-Mass.), House minority leader.  Other GOP leaders questioned whether radio reports of a so-called attack were even broadcast from Honolulu.  "You think radio waves can travel all the way from Hawaii to Washington, D.C.?" one Congressman, who declined to be identified, asked.  "Those "radio reports" came from transmitters within the White House or, more likely, within the pro-war machine at FDR's Department of War."

Republican rank and file across the country quickly adopted the theme.  Crowds outside the White House and in major cities across the country gathered, shouting "No War!  No Socialism!  No Fluoridation!"  Scheduled sailings to Japan from San Francisco quickly filled to capacity with extreme right-wing, anti-war activists determined to show that Japan remains open for American tourism.  

Other Republicans, mainly from the Midwest, firmly isolationist and already opposed to international tourism and exposure to foreign ideas, reminded Americans that they were already protected by the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and should let Europe and Asia handle their own problems in their own way.  "God has already given us the natural protection of vast oceans, shielding us from foreign peoples," one Indiana minister declared.    "We mock his Providence by crossing those great seas and seeking out overseas conflicts."

Democratic leaders called Congress into special session to consider a Declaration of War against Japan.  Republican leaders in the Senate promised a filibuster "to end all filibusters."  "Democrat Socialists and Communist fellow-travelers won't force war down the throats of red-blooded Americans," one Senator promised.  "We're prepared to keep talking on the floor of the Senate from now until 1945 if necessary."