Dems Say Rove Should Apologize or Resign

**Gawain of Orkeny** · 06-24-2005, 05:37

This is the height of hypocrcy

Dems Say Rove Should Apologize or Resign

Thursday June 23, 2005 8:46 PM

AP Photo WX113

By JIM ABRAMS

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats demanded Thursday that White House adviser Karl Rove either apologize or resign for accusing liberals of wanting ``therapy and understanding'' for the Sept. 11 attackers, escalating the rancor that threatens to consume Washington.

Rove's comments - and the response from the political opposition - mirrored earlier flaps over Democratic chairman Howard Dean's criticism of Republicans, a House Republican's statement that Democrats demonize Christians and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's comparison of the Guantanamo prison to Nazi camps and Soviet gulags.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan came to Rove's defense, saying the president's chief political adviser was ``simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism.''

``Of course not,'' McClellan said when asked by reporters whether President Bush will ask Rove to apologize.

Rove, in a speech Wednesday evening to the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, said, ``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 the Democratic Party made the mistake of calling for ``moderation and restraint'' after the terrorist attacks.

During the 2004 campaign, Bush dismissed the notion of negotiating with terrorists and said, ``You can't sit back and hope that somehow therapy will work and they will change their ways.''

Rove's comments quickly escalated the bitter divide between the parties that could get worse as Congress prepares for what may be a drawn-out political fight, possibly this summer, over a Supreme Court nominee.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Rover ``took something that is virtually sacred to New Yorkers'' - the tragedy of the Sept. 11 attacks - ``and politicized it for political, opportunistic purposes.''

``Karl Rove is not just another political operative,'' added New York's other Democratic senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton. ``He sits in the White House, a few doors down from the president.''

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, Clinton urged Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to repudiate the ``insulting comment.''

Rumsfeld replied that it ``is unfortunate when things become so polarized or so politicized.''

Schumer and Clinton joined the four Democratic senators from Connecticut and New Jersey in a letter to Rove requesting that he immediately retract his comments. ``To try to score partisan, political points at the expense of the 3,000 victims and their families was unacceptable and opportunistic,'' they wrote.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote a similar letter to Rove from House Democrats.

Schumer said Rove's comments might have been made in the heat of the moment and he was willing to accept an apology. But ``if they try to stonewall,'' he said, ``then I think resignation would be called for.''

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also said Rove, the political mastermind behind Bush's election victories, should fully apologize for his remarks or resign. Dean said Bush should ``condemn Karl Rove's desperate and divisive attempt to help the Republicans regain their political footing.''

Republicans, meanwhile, have recently condemned House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for calling the Iraq War a ``grotesque mistake,'' and demanded and finally got an apology from Durbin for his linking detainee abuse and Nazis.

And they were unapologetic about Rove's comments.

``The Republican leadership priority is to have our troops hunt down, kill or capture terrorists before they try to attack us again at home,'' said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

``The Democratic leadership priority is to actively engage in the politics of division and distraction that can undermine our national security in favor of a left-wing agenda,'' he said.

Increasing public doubts about the Iraq war have emboldened Democrats to challenge the president's policies. Republicans, in turn, contend that criticism undermines the war on terror.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican running for re-election in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, issued a statement urging both sides to keep politics out of the war on terrorism. ``We owe it to those we lost to keep partisan politics out of the discussion and keep alive the united spirit that came out of 9/11,'' he said.

After all the things Durbin and Dean just to name a few have been saying about republicans they have the nerve to say this because Rove called a lib a lib. Good for him.

**Taffy_is_a_Taff** · 06-24-2005, 05:54

when I first read that the Dems were calling on someone to resign over comments I thought they had come to their senses and called out Durbin or Dean. Then I read that it was Rove. Oh dear, they really are tw*ts.

**Phatose** · 06-24-2005, 06:14

I seem to remember the war in afghanistan enjoying rather major bipartisian support.

**Kaiser of Arabia** · 06-24-2005, 13:38

Heh, I would apoligize if I were Rove, I'd say
"I'm sorry that I said the whiney, no-good, traitorous members of society wanted Thereapy and understanding for the September 11th Hijackers, we all know that they want forgivness and love for them. I'm sorry for misunderstanding the treasonous part of the American Public. Thank you"
Then I'd take refuge in a bunker somewhere in the Idaho potato fields.

**Don Corleone** · 06-24-2005, 13:47

I think Rove was off base on this one. As Phatose said, there was some whining in the far Left circles, but the phrase liberal has come to mean anyone left of center and a LOT of them were behind the President immediately after 9/11 and into Afghanistan. Things didn't start becoming tears and handwringing until we decided to make Hussein pay for his crimes.

That being said, I think this is a silly, silly thing for the Democrats to get fired up about, and I don't think they really are. This is an effort solely to capture the ear of the uninformed middle in America. For weeks, Dean and Durbin have been going off the hook as they've tried to throw red meat to their extremes, and they've taken a PR hit for it in the middle. They're using this as a 'well, the Republicans do it too' moment, and you can't blame them for that. Rove should have known better... our right wing doesn't need any firing up so this could have only hurt, not much chance for help.