06-24-2005, 05:54 PM
|
#8 (permalink)
|
|
Banned
|
In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush, as Rene Zellwigger's line went in the movie, "Jerry McGuire", had us...(ALL Americans. of all political persuasion) from hello !
Bush also had similar backing from most of the leaders and residents in the western world. Rove's remarks are just more in a long line of mistakes that effected and reflected, the long decline that we are witnessing......
Quote:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/feat...=44797&ntpid=4
Wineke: Rove's remarks only hurt Bush
00:00 am 6/24/05
Bill Wineke Wisconsin State Journal
President Bush's supporters often wonder why so many liberal Democrats seem to "hate" him.
Well, the following quote from Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser, might go a long way toward explaining why:
"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding to our attackers," Rove said at fundraiser for the Conservative Party of New York State.
Cute, Karl. But here's what really happened in the aftermath of 9/11:
Democrats, liberals, socialists, conservatives and moderates all rallied behind President Bush, offering him their full support and backing, endorsing his invasion of Afghanistan and applauding his leadership.
Bush, advised by this self- same Karl Rove, responded by shoving that support down the Democrats' throats, distorting their votes and, through his underlings, impugning their patriotism.
Rove is a brilliant politician. We will never find his fingerprints on the 2002 election campaign in Georgia, where Sen. Max Cleland, a man who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam and who supported Bush on war plans, was linked to Osama bin Laden and accused of being soft on terrorism.
But, Rove went further.
He quoted a speech by Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin last week in which Durbin quoted an FBI report on treatment of prisoners at America's Guantanamo Bay prison camp - a report that said prisoners were chained to the floor in fetal positions and left there to urinate and defecate on themselves and suggested that, had listeners not known this was an American camp, they might have thought he was describing a Nazi or Soviet penal facility.
Durbin later apologized for the analogy but Rove argued that Durbin's remarks were reflective of the liberal motives.
"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Rove asked. "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."
Well, let me put this in fairly simple terms, Mr. Rove: What enrages people in the Arab world aren't Durbin's words but the facts behind them. Durbin didn't create the FBI report and Durbin didn't create the numerous other official reports stating clearly that on at least some occasions we have treated prisoners in an appalling manner.
Look, I know that President Bush's approval ratings are low right now and I know support for this war is waning. I know that suggesting those who oppose his policies are either cowards or traitors may have worked in the past.
But here's the problem: If the president really wants to maintain support for continuing the war - and, given what we've started in Iraq, I think it is necessary that we not leave that destroyed county at the mercy of terror - then he's going to need all the help he can get.
Karl Rove may bring red meat to tried and true conservatives who can be expected to support Bush, no matter how disastrous his decisions. But he's not going to win much support from liberals by slandering their motives and their courage.
Rove is a jerk and he might serve the president better by shutting up.
|
|
|
|