Saturday, June 25, 2005
White House stands by Karl Rove's statement that liberals "wanted to offer therapy and understanding for our attackers" on 9/11
White House: Rove Targeted Liberal Group, Filmmaker - New York Times
How much more cynical can these bastards get? Will they ever stop exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 for their own vicious political ends?
My one wish at this moment is to see Karl Rove on the front lines in Iraq.
Rather than apologize, they're claiming that Rove was referring to Michael Moore and MoveOn.org only -- not all liberals. I guess that makes it all O.K.
White House: Rove Targeted Liberal Group, Filmmaker
By REUTERS
Published: June 24, 2005
Filed at 6:06 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Responding to criticism of remarks made by Karl Rove, the White House on Friday said the president's political strategist was attacking a liberal organization and filmmaker Michael Moore when he said liberals responded weakly to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Democrats including New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer have lashed out at Rove, the deputy white House chief of staff, in press releases, at news conferences and in comments on the Senate floor.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada called on Rove to retract the comments or resign.
The bitter partisan exchange broke out two days after a Republican-led uproar over remarks by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin comparing U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to that meted out by the Nazis, at Soviet gulags or by Cambodia's Pol Pot.
``It's just puzzling why Democratic leaders are trying to defend the views of people like Michael Moore and organizations like Moveon.org that took a very different view after the attacks of September 11,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
On Thursday and Friday, McClellan defended Rove's remarks and rebuffed suggestions he apologize.
Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on Thursday, ``It's outrageous that the same Democrats who stood by Dick Durbin's libeling of our military are now expressing faux outrage over Karl Rove's statement of historical fact.''
White House counselor Dan Bartlett told Fox News on Friday that Rove's criticism was specifically directed at Moveon.org and Moore, and that ``he wasn't pointing out Democrat Clinton or Democrat Schumer or the other folks who came out with the outrage.''
Bartlett said of Clinton and Schumer, ``These are folks who right after 9/11, who voted to support the president and the response to 9/11.''
The political back-and-forth was sparked by comments made by Rove to the Conservative Party of New York state on Wednesday night.
``Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in 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,'' Rove said.
Rove cited a petition the liberal organization Moveon.org circulated after 9/11 urging moderation and restraint in responding to the attacks.
Rove also singled out Moore, who weighed into the 2004 presidential campaign with a scathing anti-Bush documentary, as well as Howard Dean, former Democratic presidential hopeful and Democratic National Committee chairman.
MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser accused Rove and Bartlett of trying to ``divert attention from the president's reckless, failed policy in Iraq by attacking us.''
And as far as the remarks made by Senator Dick Durbin, they're taken out of context by the media and I do NOT think he should have to apologize -- except insofar as he was misunderstood.
Here's what he said:
During a speech Tuesday, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.
Call me crazy, but I think he's right, and that's a good way to look at it. Just as if you objectively describe what went on in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc. in the 80's, any human being would be horrified and appalled; but as soon as you point out that the U.S. was largely responsible for all these attrocites, then people get offended THAT YOU'RE OFFENDED, because you're not allowed to tell the truth about the United States, and doing so is "a great disservice to our military personnel . . . and to all U.S. soldiers and veterans who have fought, and continue to fight, to overcome evil regimes and spread democracy around the world,", as Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna claims.
I makes me want to puke, quite frankly. We're covering this stuff up and continuing the same policies of indefinite occupation, arbitrary detension, torture, and "extraordinary rendition," etc. etc. Sure, we haven't killed millions of people or anything (in THIS war). But you can be pretty certain that if any other country invaded and occupied the U.S. and then behaved as we are doing in Iraq, that country would be compared to Nazi Germany in a heartbeat.
How much more cynical can these bastards get? Will they ever stop exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 for their own vicious political ends?
My one wish at this moment is to see Karl Rove on the front lines in Iraq.
Rather than apologize, they're claiming that Rove was referring to Michael Moore and MoveOn.org only -- not all liberals. I guess that makes it all O.K.
White House: Rove Targeted Liberal Group, Filmmaker
By REUTERS
Published: June 24, 2005
Filed at 6:06 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Responding to criticism of remarks made by Karl Rove, the White House on Friday said the president's political strategist was attacking a liberal organization and filmmaker Michael Moore when he said liberals responded weakly to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Democrats including New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer have lashed out at Rove, the deputy white House chief of staff, in press releases, at news conferences and in comments on the Senate floor.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada called on Rove to retract the comments or resign.
The bitter partisan exchange broke out two days after a Republican-led uproar over remarks by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin comparing U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to that meted out by the Nazis, at Soviet gulags or by Cambodia's Pol Pot.
``It's just puzzling why Democratic leaders are trying to defend the views of people like Michael Moore and organizations like Moveon.org that took a very different view after the attacks of September 11,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
On Thursday and Friday, McClellan defended Rove's remarks and rebuffed suggestions he apologize.
Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on Thursday, ``It's outrageous that the same Democrats who stood by Dick Durbin's libeling of our military are now expressing faux outrage over Karl Rove's statement of historical fact.''
White House counselor Dan Bartlett told Fox News on Friday that Rove's criticism was specifically directed at Moveon.org and Moore, and that ``he wasn't pointing out Democrat Clinton or Democrat Schumer or the other folks who came out with the outrage.''
Bartlett said of Clinton and Schumer, ``These are folks who right after 9/11, who voted to support the president and the response to 9/11.''
The political back-and-forth was sparked by comments made by Rove to the Conservative Party of New York state on Wednesday night.
``Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in 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,'' Rove said.
Rove cited a petition the liberal organization Moveon.org circulated after 9/11 urging moderation and restraint in responding to the attacks.
Rove also singled out Moore, who weighed into the 2004 presidential campaign with a scathing anti-Bush documentary, as well as Howard Dean, former Democratic presidential hopeful and Democratic National Committee chairman.
MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser accused Rove and Bartlett of trying to ``divert attention from the president's reckless, failed policy in Iraq by attacking us.''
And as far as the remarks made by Senator Dick Durbin, they're taken out of context by the media and I do NOT think he should have to apologize -- except insofar as he was misunderstood.
Here's what he said:
During a speech Tuesday, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.
Call me crazy, but I think he's right, and that's a good way to look at it. Just as if you objectively describe what went on in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc. in the 80's, any human being would be horrified and appalled; but as soon as you point out that the U.S. was largely responsible for all these attrocites, then people get offended THAT YOU'RE OFFENDED, because you're not allowed to tell the truth about the United States, and doing so is "a great disservice to our military personnel . . . and to all U.S. soldiers and veterans who have fought, and continue to fight, to overcome evil regimes and spread democracy around the world,", as Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna claims.
I makes me want to puke, quite frankly. We're covering this stuff up and continuing the same policies of indefinite occupation, arbitrary detension, torture, and "extraordinary rendition," etc. etc. Sure, we haven't killed millions of people or anything (in THIS war). But you can be pretty certain that if any other country invaded and occupied the U.S. and then behaved as we are doing in Iraq, that country would be compared to Nazi Germany in a heartbeat.
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