It's the Democrats' turn to demand apologies, this time for a statement made by Karl Rove. Here's what Rove said in a speech in New York on Wednesday:
"liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Conservatives, he said in the speech to the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war." ... "Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
And while Rove said "liberals" he likely meant -- or hoped his audience would hear -- "Democrats" -- the party currently throwing so many nasty roadblocks in the way of the president's congressional agenda. To be honest, Rove's rhetoric is really not much different from what the GOP has said or implied almost since the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and it's less harsh than the way the sentiment is routinely stated on conservative talk radio. Still, it's an opening, and after all the Durbin agonistes, the Dems are hot to pounce on the opportunity for turnabout.
The bigger issue here, I think, is that the White House has officially returned to campaign mode. Having lost most of the public when it comes to Iraq, and facing an escalating, bloody, violent mess in its key foreign policy push, Rove and Co. have decided that the best defense is a good offense -- and what better offense than the same one that worked so well against John Kerry (not to mention going back to the Iraq = al-Qaida canard that worked so well in snookering the american people the first time)? What the White House seems to hope is that they can get the Freeperati all fired up again to defend the war for them. (When you want something done right, get the bloggers to do it). As an added bonus, they hope that will bring up the Dems' negatives and by the law of political reversal, make the president and his policy more popular (possibly giving Bush some leverage to turn things around in the Senate -- though I think this view misses a fundamental point: Bush's Hill problem isn't that Senators aren't sufficiently cowed by his popularity; his problem is that he has no more discernible a strategy for dealing with the lawmakers on Capitol Hill than he has for salvaging Iraq...)
Of course, Bush's other problem is that Iraq is not just sinking in the eyes of liberals, Democrats and pollsters. The administration's Iraq policy is getting a good kicking from Republicans, too, not to mention Gen. Abizaid the CIA. I'm with the Democrats who want to see Rove apologize, or better yet, resign (he won't). But you know, I'm with Ted Kennedy in feeling that the line should form behind Donald Rumsfeld.
What remains to be seen is if the left is as efficient as the right in forcing a mea culpa. Rovewatch begins... now. |
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