Politicians have a way of making themselves vulnerable every time they open their mouths. Each sound bite is dissected by the media, often divided to mean something entirely different than it did in context. But the comments made by Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser, about liberals in the past week are more than the remove-foot-from-mouth crises every politician faces once in a while.
"Conservatives saw the savagery of [the Sept. 11 terrorist 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 during a speech last Wednesday before the New York Conservative Party, just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center.
The comments are not only arrogant, but a blatant lie. I don't know whether Rove's memory fails him, but after the attacks, only one of the 535 members of Congress voted against authorizing military action in Afghanistan as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, reminded us. Maybe our only fault has been that, instead of trying to trample the Constitution, we had a few reservations about waging war wherever and whenever we wanted under the banner of fighting terrorism.
Rove's comments came shortly after Sen. Rick Santorum's comments comparing Democrats' defense of the filibuster to actions by Hitler. Prominent liberal leaders from Hillary Clinton to Howard Dean urged Rove to apologize, and Families of September 11 issued a statement saying, "We are calling on Karl Rove to resist his temptations and stop trying to reap political gain in the tragic misfortune of others. His comments are not welcome."
What is most disturbing of all is that intelligent and politically savvy politicians seem to be so out of political ammunition that they have to stoop to the lowest level of insult and attack their opponents with logically flawed, inflammatory remarks. As former Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a speech on the floor of the Senate, "[The] spirit of our country should never be reduced to a cheap, divisive, political applause line from anyone who speaks for the president of the United States."
What Rove allegedly was referring to (but curiously forgot to specify) is groups like MoveOn.org, which disagreed with the U.S. using force against terrorists. But that isn't 'liberals,' that's particular politically motivated groups. Karl Rove, of all the political-rhetoric manipulators out there, knows the difference better than anyone else.
Nonetheless he chose to group all liberals together with his thoughtless comments. The White House didn't even give Rove a slap on the wrist, but rather deemed his comments perfectly acceptable. White House Director of Communications Dan Bartlett said, "I think Karl was very specific, very accurate, in who he was pointing out. It's touched a chord with these Democrats. I'm not sure why."
Maybe you'd find out why if you had a touch of class and respect for those who represent the opposition -- character traits that never seemed to be a part of the administration's priority list. Rove knew he could get away with this comment and escape any kind of political retribution. But maybe the next time he opens his mouth to criticize someone, he should look at the current situation in Afghanistan, the loss of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and the state of the economy here at home. Lots to talk about there, Karl.
Lucia Bill is a journalism and political science junior. Reach her at lucia.bill@asu.edu.
