Karl's Kerfuffle
Karl Rove created quite a stir with his remarks comparing conservative and liberal responses to 911. As I see it, what he said was awkward, overly broad, and politically stupid. The sweep of his comments unfairly included a huge number of people, most certainly a very large majority of Democrats.
But, as Michael Barone pointed out, he wasn't exactly wrong. Rove gave at least one example of what he was talking about, a fact conveniently left out of major media reporting. Barone lists a number of other examples from sources such as MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, George Soros, and Howard Dean.
The same Michael Moore who has famously proclaimed, "Americans are the stupidest people in the world." The extremist embraced by far too many otherwise intelligent liberals, the one who sat in a place of honor beside a former President of the United States at the Democratic convention.
The same Howard Dean, who is pretty much the de facto leader of today's chaotic Democratic Party. As Barone said:
It comes naturally to Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to proclaim Saddam should be presumed innocent pending trial but House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should be jailed for offenses with which he has not even been charged.
It's absolutely true that the vast majority of liberals and Democrats didn't deserve to be painted with Rove's broad brush. But, as countless moms and dads have warned their rebellious teenagers, you're known by the company you keep.
We all know that Rove screwed up, missing a great opportunity to keep his mouth shut. He isn't going to resign or get fired, and another sappy half-apology by a politician with hoof-and-mouth disease would be as meaningless as all the others. Let's get over it and move on. After all, he didn't compare some American soldiers to Nazis and other murderous dictators.
But, as Michael Barone pointed out, he wasn't exactly wrong. Rove gave at least one example of what he was talking about, a fact conveniently left out of major media reporting. Barone lists a number of other examples from sources such as MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, George Soros, and Howard Dean.
The same Michael Moore who has famously proclaimed, "Americans are the stupidest people in the world." The extremist embraced by far too many otherwise intelligent liberals, the one who sat in a place of honor beside a former President of the United States at the Democratic convention.
The same Howard Dean, who is pretty much the de facto leader of today's chaotic Democratic Party. As Barone said:
It comes naturally to Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to proclaim Saddam should be presumed innocent pending trial but House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should be jailed for offenses with which he has not even been charged.
It's absolutely true that the vast majority of liberals and Democrats didn't deserve to be painted with Rove's broad brush. But, as countless moms and dads have warned their rebellious teenagers, you're known by the company you keep.
We all know that Rove screwed up, missing a great opportunity to keep his mouth shut. He isn't going to resign or get fired, and another sappy half-apology by a politician with hoof-and-mouth disease would be as meaningless as all the others. Let's get over it and move on. After all, he didn't compare some American soldiers to Nazis and other murderous dictators.
5 Comments:
Francesca, from what Barone wrote, Rove did cite at least one example. However, I haven't seen anything about it in the press. That's not surprising.
Keep in mind that I stated clearly that I disapprove of his remarks and the way he made them. However, the specific examples are so well known, at least in general terms, that he didn't need footnotes. Rove's error, in addition to making the statement in the first place, was applying it beyond the extremists he was talking about.
Rove didn't make any mistakes. Context matters, and Rove was specifically talking about MoveOn.org type liberals when he made his remarks. Schumer, Hillary et al. made the mistake by assuming, or pretending, that Rove was talking about them.
Van Helsing
Moonbattery
Van Helsing makes an excellent point about their assuming.
It's funny. No comments from people when Dean makes stupid remarks. Could they be embarrassed?
Francesca, I think you're on to something.
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