The Legend of Karl the Great

For all the "evil" genius the Democrats petulantly attribute to Bush political guru Karl Rove, it always makes me wish that he was even half the svengali they say he is. That way he could just wave his magic wand, or employ some Jedi mind tricks (which only work on weak minds, as Star Wars geeks will recall), and Donk obstructionism on...well, everything, give or take an issue, would evaporate, and America (and the world) could live happily ever after.

I don't know that he's necessarily a "genius" at all. Rather, not unlike the late Lee Atwater, he is the rarest of creatures, a Republican political strategist who (a) knows his opponents and (b) isn't afraid to push the buttons that activate their weaknesses.

Jen covered what Rove said about the questionability of Dem priorities at a Wednesday New York Conservative Party fundraising event. My reaction to it was twofold: (1) elation that finally, some Republican outside the grassroots was firing back; and (2) fascination that the other side reacted precisely as I - and, evidently, Karl the Great - would have expected.

Now, then, what did Rove really say that blew lefty doors off? He contrasted liberal and conservative reactions to 9/11. He cited conservative strength and seriousness versus liberal weakness, feckless pacifism, and moral cowardice. And he drew a line of progression between that post-9/11 lib pathos and the outright sedition of Dick Durbin a week earlier.

To listen to the Donk wailing and gnashing of teeth, you'd think Rove had burned Hillary Clinton in effigy or something.

White House adviser Karl Rove should either apologize or resign for saying liberals responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes by wanting to "prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Democrats said Thursday.

Apologize for what? Criticizing them? My, how highly they think of themselves. Meanwhile, I can't recall anybody on the Republican side in any official capacity who ever called for Dick Durbin's resignation.

Back to the hysterics...

Adding to the rancor, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, suggested that Republican charges that Democrats were undermining the war on terror with their criticism of Administration policies amounted to an act of desperation.

"The President wanted to go to Iraq in the worst possible way and he did," Pelosi said. "The President is on the ropes."

That, of course, is not "criticism of Administration policies," it is dishonest fantasizing and wishful thinking. Indeed, it is precisely what Rove was describing.

Obviously the Dems' fax machines were were on maximum overdrive:

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

Ah, yes, in just the way, no doubt, that Dirty Harry "immediately and fully apologized" when he called the President a "liar" and a "loser" and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan a "partisan hack" and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "illiterate." Obviously Senator Fife is "feeling lucky."

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

{uncontrollable eye-rolling} This from the man who called Senator al-Durbini "courageous" the other night.

During a Senate hearing on Iraq in which Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other military leaders testified, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, read Rove's statement and urged them to reject the remarks.

"I would hope that you and other members of the Administration would immediately repudiate such an insulting comment from a high-ranking official in the President's inner circle," Clinton said.

Insulting? How is the truth insulting? Although I shouldn't be, it's still hard not to be astounded that any Democrat said anything at all after the Durbin episode and the way the entire Left circled the wagons around him. After all, there are several orders of magnitude between referring to liberals as soft on terrorism - which they are, unless somebody can come up with a convincing alternative conclusion to their demands that Gitmo be shut down - and Dickbar's sliming of U.S. soldiers as Nazis, gulagists, and Pol Pot clones.

It goes back to an observation I made early in the Clinton dark age: liberals not only think themselves above criticism, but can't understand how opposition to them can even exist, and therefore act as though it has no right to exist either.

That imperiousness earned Mrs. Clinton a sharp rebuke from, of all people, her "adopted" state's GOP governor, George Pataki:

"I think it's a little hypocritical for Senator Clinton to call on me to repudiate a political figure's comment, when she never asked Senator Durbin to repudiate his comments," Pataki told reporters, after she complained that he sat idly by as Rove blasted liberals for being soft on terror at a New York Conservative party function Wednesday night.

She never responded when asked to respond [about Durbin]," Pataki complained. "She never responded to Howard Dean's insult to every single Republican, saying that they never earned an honest day's living.

"She never responded to Senator Reid's unfair criticism of the President - he called the President a loser and a liar. He's never apologized - she never requested that."

"She never called for an apology or clarification when Moveon.org called for moderation and restraint in response to the terrorist attacks."

Pataki concluded: "So, when she does that, I'll be glad to listen to her call for me to ask someone to apologize."

Worlds without end, halleluliah amen.

I've commented before that for Democrats, the truth is deadlier than any lie. Their reaction to Karl the Great should tell you why.

And if that doesn't, this compilation from the RNC should:

Liberal Third Party Groups Urged Restraint, Blamed America:

Immediately After 9/11, MoveOn.Org Petition Urged “Moderation And Restraint” And Use Of “International Judicial Institutions.”

*“We, The Undersigned, Citizens And Residents Of The United States Of America … Appeal To The President Of The United States, George W. Bush … And To All Leaders Internationally To Use Moderation And Restraint In Responding To The Recent Terrorist Attacks Against The United States.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

*“We Implore The Powers That Be To Use, Wherever Possible, International Judicial Institutions And International Human Rights Law To Bring To Justice Those Responsible For The Attacks, Rather Than The Instruments Of War, Violence Or Destruction.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

*“[W]e Demand That There Be No Recourse To Nuclear, Chemical Or Biological Weapons, Or Any Weapons Of Indiscriminate Destruction, And Feel That It Is Our Inalienable Human Right To Live In A World Free Of Such Arms.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

Just After 9/11, Liberal Filmmaker Michael Moore Derided “Terror And Bloodshed” Committed By Americans. (David Brooks, Op-Ed, “All Hail Moore,” The New York
Times, 6/26/04)

*Just After 9/11, Moore Blamed America’s “Taxpayer-Funded Terrorism” And Bush Administration For Terrorist Attacks. “We abhor terrorism – unless we’re the ones doing the terrorizing. We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me.…Let’s mourn, let’s grieve, and when it’s appropriate let’s examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in.” (Michael Moore Website Archive, “Death, Downtown,” Posted 9/12/01, http://www.michaelmoore.com/, Accessed 7/27/04)

*Michael Moore Said U.S. Should Not Have Removed Taliban After 9/11. Moore: “Likewise, to bomb Afghanistan – I mean, I’ve never understood this, Tim.” (CNBC’s Tim Russert, 10/19/02)

Liberal Donor George Soros Claimed America Should Have Treated 9/11 Attacks As Crime, Responded With Police Work. “War is a false and misleading metaphor in the context of combating terrorism. Treating the attacks of September 11 as crimes against humanity would have been more appropriate. Crimes require police work, not military action. To protect against terrorism, you need precautionary measures, awareness, and intelligence gathering – all of which ultimately depend on the support of the populations among which terrorists operate. Imagine for a moment that September 11 had been treated as a crime. We would have pursued Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but we would not have invaded Iraq. Nor would we have our military struggling to perform police work in full combat gear and getting killed in the process.” (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 18)

*Soros Said The Execution Of 9/11 Attacks “Could Not Have Been More Spectacular.” “Admittedly, the terrorist attack was a historic event in its own right. Hijacking fully loaded airplanes and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and the execution could not have been more spectacular.” (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 2)

*Soros Said War On Terror Had Claimed More Innocent Victims Than 9/11 Attack Itself. “This is a very tough thing to say, but the fact is, that the war on terror as conducted by this Administration, has claimed more innocent victims that the original attack itself.” (George Soros, Remarks At Take Back America Conference, Washington, DC, 6/3/04)

Liberal Democrats Urged Restraint, Blamed America:

*Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH): “‘The Time For Peace Is Now,’ [Kucinich] Declared Optimistically July 11, Two Months To The Day Before Terrorists Hit The Pentagon And The World Trade Center. … Sitting In His Capitol Hill Office Last Week, Near A Window Where He Could See The Smoke Rising From The Pentagon On Sept. 11, Kucinich Insisted He Is More Optimistic Than Ever That People Worldwide Are Ready To Embrace The Cause Of Nonviolence.” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)

*Kucinich: “Afghanistan May Be An Incubator Of Terrorism But It Doesn’t Follow That We Bomb Afghanistan …” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)

*Representative Neil Abercrombie (D-HI): “Only Now Are We Trying To Figure Out What Is Islam. Maybe If There Was A Department Of Peace, They Would Be Able To Say, ‘Uh-Oh, We’ve Got Some Problems With These People,’ … I Truly Believe That If We Had A Department Of Peace, We Would Have Seen [9/11] Coming.” (Ethan Wallison, “War A Challenge For Peace Caucus,” Roll Call, 10/1/01)

*Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA): “I Am Convinced That Military Action Will Not Prevent Further Acts Of International Terrorism Against The United States.” (Eddy Ramirez, “California Congresswoman Alone In Vote Against War Powers Resolution,” [University Of California-Berkeley] Daily Californian, 9/17/01)

*Al Sharpton Said That The Attacks On The World Trade Center Are Evidence That “America Is Beginning To Reap What It Has Sown.” (Adam Nagourney, “Say It Loud,” The New York Times, 12/1/02)

*Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) Claimed Osama Bin Laden Could Be Compared To “Revolutionaries That Helped To Cast Off The British Crown.” “‘One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown,’ Kaptur told an Ohio newspaper, The (Toledo) Blade.” (Malie Rulon, “Lawmaker Compares Osama, U.S. Patriots,” The Associated Press, 3/6/03)

*Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) Said The United States Would “Pay Every Single Hour, Ever Single Day” That Bombs Were Dropped In Afghanistan. “‘How much longer does the bombing campaign continue?’ Biden asked during an October 22 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘We’re going to pay every single hour, every single day it continues.’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)

*“The Bombing Campaign, [Biden] Said, Reinforced Existing Stereotypes Of The United States As A ‘High-Tech Bully …’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)

*Governor Howard Dean (D-VT) Said Osama Bin Laden Not Guilty. Dean: “I Still Have This Old-Fashioned Notion That Even With People Like Osama, Who Is Very Likely To Be Found Guilty, We Should Do Our Best Not To, In Positions Of Executive Power, Not To Prejudge Jury Trials.” (“Dean Not Ready To Pronounce Osama Bin Laden Guilty,” The Associated Press, 12/26/03)

*Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) To High School Students: “How Would [Muslims] Look At Us Today If We Had Been There Helping Them With Some Of That Rather Than Just Being The People Who Are Going To Bomb In Iraq And Go To Afghanistan? … War Is Expensive Too … Your Generation Ought To Be Thinking About Whether We Should Be Better Neighbors Out In Other Countries So That They Have A Different Vision Of Us.” (Gregg Herrington, “Senator Asks Students To Ponder,” The [Vancouver, WA] Columbian, 12/19/02)

*Senator John Kerry (D-MA): “[W]ar On Terror Is Far Less Of A Military Operation And Far More Of An Intelligence-Gathering, Law-Enforcement Operation.” (The Iowa Brown & Black Coalition Presidential Forum, Des Moines, IA, 1/11/04)

*Kerry: “[W]hat We’ve Learned Is That The War On Terror Is Much More Of An Intelligence Operation And A Law Enforcement Operation.” (NPR’s All Things Considered, 3/19/03)

And let's not leave out the principle architect of our pre-9/11 vulnerability:

[Understanding the terrorists] was exactly the advice offered by ex-President Clinton, delivered in an address to Georgetown University less than two months after the attacks.

"First of all, terror, the killing of noncombatants for economic, political, or religious reasons has a very long history - as long as organized combat itself," Clinton lectured. "Those of us who come from various European lineages are not blameless."

Then the ex-president catalogued the terrorist abuses perpetrated by Europeans and Americans on Jews, Muslims and people of color.

"Indeed, in the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in it, and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was Muslim on the Temple moun[t]," he noted.

"Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation that practiced slavery and slaves were, quite frequently, killed even though they were innocent."

The U.S. "looked the other way," Clinton charged, "when significant numbers of Native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human and we are still paying the price today."

By the time Mr. Clinton was done with his terrorism history lesson, [his conclusion] was clear[:] America got what it deserved on 9/11.

And Democrats call what Karl Rove said "outrageous" and demand his apology and resignation? After spending the past nearly four years pissing on the graves of the three thousand Americans slaughtered in cold blood by our enemies, the seventeen hundred more that have willingly given their lives since, and in the faces of the servicepeople who are even now fighting the jihadis in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere to prevent any more such attacks on our homeland?

Boys and girls, Rove was too easy on you. If any of you had mirrors and an ounce of integrity, you would all apologize, individually and collectively, and not just resign your offices, but disband your entire misbegotten party as the threat to national security that it is.

Michelle Malkin thought this concise peroration a fitting last word:

Soldiers get their lives endangered but no one is supposed to say jack. Liberals get their feelings hurt and scream bloody murder.

It's enough to make you a bit cynical.

And what hurt their feelings was nothing more than a recitation of the truth.

"...and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Karl the Great pointed the way. Removing the "Dis" from "DisLoyal Opposition" is up to them.