Turdblossom

Karl Rove, speaking just a few miles from Ground Zero, showed last night why we can just drop the last two syllables of that Presidential nickname.

"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," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."

For those who were on a different planet at the time, let's remember that

Three days after the terrorist attacks, the Senate voted 98-0 and the House voted 420-1 for a resolution authorizing Bush to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against those responsible for the terrorism.

But he wasn't done yet:

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Mr. 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."

So, not only is he saying that we were cowards and wimps about responding to 9/11, but because we suggest that torturing prisoners is unamerican and wrong, we are in league with Arab propagandists and are putting our troops in greater danger.

Sorry, Karl, but the wind has shifted, and, to quote Howard Beale, "we're not going to take it anymore!"

Democrats were quick to respond - and in growing numbers.

"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. "I hope the president will join me in repudiating these remarks."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on Bush to "show some leadership and unequivocally repudiate Rove's divisive and damaging political rhetoric."

----------

Told of Mr. Rove's remarks, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, replied: "In New York, where everyone unified after 9/11, the last thing we need is somebody who seeks to divide us for political purposes."

Apparently Karl, running true to form, has decided the answer to W's lame-duck status is to attack. For Karl Rove, the answer to everything is to attack, it seems.

I just don't see how he thinks this will make Democrats any less "obstructionist". I think even go-along right-wingers like Lieberman will get their backs up about dissin' them on 9/11. If the White House lets this go, it can forget about Democratic votes from now on. And I think there are a few Republicans for whom this goes beyond the pale as well.

Karl seems to believe that they can just bully their way through, but I think the Dems, and the public, are tired of getting stuffed into lockers and having their lunch money stolen. (The new Harris Poll shows 63% in favor of bringing most of our troops home within a year, rather than wait for a stable Iraqi government.)

People are beginning to realize that we not only have to be tough, we have to be smart. The behavior of the administration since the election, on Schiavo, and Social Security, and Iraq, and more, has enabled people to begin to see them not as resolute leaders, but stubborn and self-interested politicians. As blogger Josh Marshall puts it:

For Rove, the war on terror, Iraq and Afghanistan have always been nothing more than tools of domestic politics. He speaks for the president and the president speaks for him. So all of that applies to the president too unless and until we hear from him.

The A-list press folks, especially on TV, are too well trained to call Rove out of bounds. So Dems will have to do it all themselves.

The president and his partner are more concerned with going to war with half the country than they are with war against the country's enemies abroad. Until the president thinks differently on that key point there's simply no point in dealing with him on anything.

What Karl said, "them's fightin' words!"

Update: For a more heart-felt reaction, I suggest the Mahablog.

Update II: For another, try Garance Franke-Ruta at TAPPED. And see what the 9/11 Families have to say.