Tuesday, July 05, 2005

''White House smear campaign''

"Ask Karl Rove for an apology? Not me. Apologies are appropriate for foolish remarks made in the heat of argument. Rove read from a script. The White House handed out copies. Besides, what would an apology from that flabby little apparatchik be worth? He's the human equivalent of a fear-biting dog: His Master's Voice.

"Conservatives," Rove said, "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 for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to submit a petition. I am not joking."

No, he was fabricating. The House voted President Bush the authority to attack the Taliban and Osama bin Laden by 420-1. The Senate voted unanimously, 98-0. To my knowledge, nobody mentioned therapy.

The usual Washington pundits say Rove wasn't attacking Democrats, only "liberals." Oh really? Rove claimed that party chairman Howard Dean opposed fighting the Taliban. In fact, Dean supported the Afghan war. He criticized Bush for letting bin Laden escape to pursue his obsession with Saddam Hussein."-from the column today by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons.

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