Very appropriate pic. Republicans and Democrats in Congress played their annual baseball game at BaySox Stadium last night.
Posted on 06/24/2005 7:01:31 AM PDT by texas_mrs
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A White House official said Friday the administration finds it "somewhat puzzling" that Democrats are demanding presidential adviser Karl Rove's apology or resignation for implying that liberals are soft on terrorism.
"I think Karl was very specific, very accurate, in who he was pointing out," communications director Dan Bartlett said. "It's touched a chord with these Democrats. I'm not sure why."
Congressional Republicans earlier joined the White House in standing solidly behind Rove, saying he shouldn't apologize and that he was outlining a philosophical divide between a president who sought to win the war on terrorism by taking the fight to the enemy and Democrats who questioned that approach.
The controversy, fought out in hearings, floor speeches and news conferences Thursday on Capitol Hill, was the latest of several highly contentious battles that have soured the already highly partisan atmosphere.
Earlier this week Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., apologized after being hit with a chorus of attacks from Republicans about comments in which he compared detainee treatment at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the actions of Nazis and other repressive regimes.
Rove, the architect behind President Bush's election victories, on Wednesday night told a gathering of the New York Conservative Party that "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, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
He added that groups linked to the Democratic Party made the mistake of calling for "moderation and restraint" after the terrorist attacks.
Bartlett, appearing on morning news shows Friday, said that Rove was referring in his talk to Moveon.org, a liberal group that has been identified with movie producer Michael Moore.
"It's somewhat puzzling why all these Democrats ... who responded forcefully after 9-11, who voted to support President Bush's pursuit of the war on terror, are now rallying to the defense of Moveon.org, this liberal organization who put out a petition in the days after 9-11 and said that we ought not use military force in responding to 9-11," Bartlett said on NBC's "Today" show. "That is who Karl Rove cited in that speech ... There is no need to apologize."
Appearing on CBS's "The Early Show," Bartlett said that Rove was "just pointing out that MoveOn.org is a liberal organization that didn't defend or accept the way that we prosecuted the war in the days after" the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Bartlett told interviewers that he didn't understand why Democrats "are throwing up such a huff."
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) of New York, in a letter to Rove co-signed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Democratic senators from Connecticut and New Jersey, called the presidential adviser's speech "a slap in the face to the unity that America achieved after Sept. 11, 2001."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday there was no reason for Rove to apologize because he was "simply pointing out the different philosophies when it comes to winning the war on terrorism."
"Of course not," McClellan said when asked by reporters whether Bush would ask Rove to apologize.
Democrats said Rove, and his Republican allies, were now trying to change the subject when Democrats, and many Americans, are becoming increasingly critical of the course of the war in Iraq.
For Rove "to try to exploit 9/11 for political purposes once again just shows you how desperate they are," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who in recent days has been the target of Republican attacks for saying that the Iraq war was a "grotesque mistake."
I nearly fell off my chair when I read this gem.
Are these people insane? I cannot even fathom how much venom has spewed from their collective(ist) holes!!!
I agree. Rove cited more than just Moveon. He named Dean and he tied in the Durbin outrage to his point of where liberalism stands.
I wholeheartedly approve of Rove's remarks and think he took it directly to the dems, not "just liberals" and I don't care for Bartlett's response and prefer McClellan's and Mehlman's.
Having said that, I diagree with you that it is much ado about nothing. Rove set up the stark philosophical differences between conservative and liberal factions; a most important issue that should be made plain to the American people.
You forgot the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.
It was the New York Post and the headline was "Bush Knew"
It was based on the just-leaked at the time (May 2002) August 2001 PDB.
It is not funny but expected. He was clearly referring to liberals, liberal groups AND democrats.
I approve (lest anyone think I don't) but he was not as coy as Bartlett or some are pretending:
MoveOn.Org, Michael Moore and Howard Dean may not have agreed with this, but the American people did.
Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies. Conservatives see the United States as a great nation engaged in a noble cause; liberals see the United States and they see … Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and the killing fields of Cambodia.
Has there been a more revealing moment this year than when Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, speaking on the Senate floor, compared what Americans had done to prisoners in our control at Guantanamo Bay with what was done by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot – three of the most brutal and malevolent figures in the 20th century?
Let me put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Senator Durbin, certainly putting America’s men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.
~snip~
He is tying Moveon and Dean and Durbin and Kerry, etc. around the dem party with a big fat bow and saying you cannot separate them out, the dems have embraced Moveon, Moveon and their ilk have embraced the dems. It is therefore no surprise the dems are squealing like stuck pigs.
He was more direct than you give him credit for is what I and the person you're arguing with are saying.
Yes, having read his speech it tells me his shot was at liberal Democrats, not just "liberals".
Bush and his people detected the Donks and their allies in the media were going to go Full Vietnam Syndrome on them. So what they've decided to do is to engage in a spoiling offensive. Very smart. Rove's speech was a classic opening gambit by a master chess player. And I suspect that it was Bush who was moving his knight. For months, Dems have been accusing Bush of lying and mendacity. Now, the tables are turned and in such an indirect manner. Bush had Karl use the word "liberal" and the Donkeys responded like Pavlov's dogs.
Thus, "Democrat"="liberal". Just as the Durbin controversy dies down, the Donkeys find a way to jump all over Karl, and keep the controversy alive.
Bush has to know about the poll data indicating American discomfort with the Dems on defense and national security. Smart man, very smart man. Notice how quickly Mehlman came out with the follow up memo with sourced quotes?
This was a planned operation. Well done by Dubya and Karl! Kick the bastards in the teeth for their faux support of the troops.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Hit them again, harder, harder. Hit again, harder, harder.
I love this. You know many Democrats cringe when somebody calls them liberals. Now Karl has outed them all. Beautiful. Karl is an evil genious. I am sure glad he is on our side.
To you and I he was direct. But to a non freeper?
I think referencing Dean and Durbin as examples of how a liberal looks at the US is pretty darned plain.
CA....
Right, but there were more dems than just Dean and Durbin who reacted. The so called "rank and file" reacted as if they had personally been named. Wow, coming to the defense of Dean when they have been trying to distance (without actually distancing) themselves from his comments. That was pretty incredible to me.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Of course they reacted. They knew he was talking about them. He took it right to them and lifted the mask they like to wear.
It's a good thing.
Officer Vic on KSFO radio in SF (Morning show) says his middle name is "Head".
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