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You are here: Home / Politics / Rove’s Ranting: Red-Baiting Redux?

Rove’s Ranting: Red-Baiting Redux?

by John Cole|  June 24, 20059:31 am| 17 Comments

This post is in: Politics

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It is looking more and more like Rove’s offensive remarks were, as always is the case with the Rove, a political strategy:

Rove’s new comments come on the heels of an interview with David Gregory on MSNBC on Tuesday, in which Rove provided indications that Bush’s new PR blitz to regain support for the war in Iraq may include the implication that criticizing Bush’s plan is tantamount to supporting the insurgency.

When Gregory asked Rove about the dwindling public support for the war, Rove answered: “We need to remember, that’s part of the goal of the insurgents. Their goal is to weaken our resolve by being so violent and so dangerous and so ugly that they hope that we will turn tail and run.”

And consider that all this is coming from a man who in April, in a talk at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., lit into the press corps for hyping political conflict.

Sullivan seems to agree:

Rove’s strategic decision to make social security reform the center-piece of the second term has also, shall we say, not gone according to plan. So what to do? You do what you always do. You create a scenario in which you cannot be out-demagogued. You deflect from the awful fall-out from the decision to exempt terror suspects from bans on cruel and inhumane treatment to a senator’s analogy to the Gulag. And instead of leveling with the country about the real difficulty of the war we’re in, acknowledging error and sketching a unifying vision for winning, you divide the country into good folk and “liberals” and hope it works as well as it always has. If you want to know how well the administration really believes the war is going, listen to their rhetoric. And start worrying.

As does the Instapundit:

SOMETIMES I WONDER if Karl Rove is as smart as everyone says. But just as the Durbin affair was dying down, he makes a comment about liberals and the war that leads Democrats — itching for payback — to angrily demand his resignation.

Trouble is, those demands just provide an excuse for Republicans to repeat every single stupid or unpatriotic thing that every Democratic politician ever said. And there are a lot of those. Examples can be found here, and here, and here. And, of course, there’s this. And because the usual suspects in the media could be expected to pick up on the Rove story much faster than the Durbin story (as they did) now there’s a news hook.

Yeah, he’s pretty smart.

Well, then- I guess if we are only calling liberals traitors for partisan political purposes, and we don’t really mean it, I guess it is ok. [/sarcasm]

Some party we have here.

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Reader Interactions

17Comments

  1. 1.

    Stormy 70

    June 24, 2005 at 10:47 am

    Whose calling liberals traitors?

  2. 2.

    Sojourner

    June 24, 2005 at 11:12 am

    Stormy:

    You can’t seriously be that clueless, can you?

  3. 3.

    Stormy 70

    June 24, 2005 at 11:44 am

    Very. I don’t mean posters on a comment thread, either. I mean prominent members of the Republicn party.

  4. 4.

    Darrell

    June 24, 2005 at 11:47 am

    Get with the program Stormy. Lefties don’t want to deal with actual accusations of them being traitors, of which there are precious few examples to be found. No, the left loves their victim status, pretending that an army of eevil Rethuglicans are shouting down honest criticism with accusations of being a traitor. Much easier for them to deal with these types of cartoonish stereotypes rather than deal with the truth

    So don’t ask them for examples of Repubs calling them ‘traitors’ ..the answer might pop their bubble

  5. 5.

    Ed Subitzky

    June 24, 2005 at 12:36 pm

    Darrell, you’re not too bright, are you?

  6. 6.

    Mike Jones

    June 24, 2005 at 12:41 pm

    Wow. They really are determined to turn this into another Vietnam, aren’t they?

  7. 7.

    Uncle Kvetch

    June 24, 2005 at 3:42 pm

    And instead of leveling with the country about the real difficulty of the war we’re in, acknowledging error and sketching a unifying vision for winning, you divide the country into good folk and “liberals” and hope it works as well as it always has.

    This coming from Andrew “Fifth Column” Sullivan? Pot, shake hands with kettle. You guys should have a lot to talk about.

    Irony really is dead after all.

  8. 8.

    David

    June 24, 2005 at 8:44 pm

    Peoplo will believe what they want to believe. Darrel is testament to this fact.

    Meanwhile, conservatives such as John Cole, and Micheal Totten, get it right.

    Why? Because they understand that truth and the facts must trump ideology.

    http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/000864.html

  9. 9.

    David

    June 24, 2005 at 8:47 pm

    Peoplo will believe what they want to believe. Darrel is testament to this fact.

    Meanwhile, conservatives such as John Cole, and Micheal Totten, get it right.

    Why? Because they understand that truth and the facts must trump ideology.

    http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/000864.html

  10. 10.

    K

    June 24, 2005 at 9:56 pm

    Darrel,

    How dare you? The thousands of people who died on that bright day in September were people. They were not Rs or Ds. They were living, breathing people who had families and friends who loved them. Every state got hit that day. No one was a lefty or righty on that day. I sat stunned…and then went for the phone to find out where my family members were. My NYC and DC area students were equally shocked and appalled.

    There are conservatives and liberals in the military. There are liberals and conservatives in the families and survivors of 9/11. There are conservatives and liberals serving in all parts of the war on terror. There are conservatives and liberals working in human rights organizations in Iraq.

    Traitor is a pretty heavy word with very serious implications and ramifications. To bandy it about as a political quip is beyond the pale.

  11. 11.

    Kt

    June 24, 2005 at 9:58 pm

    Darrel,

    How dare you? The thousands of people who died on that bright day in September were people. They were not Rs or Ds. They were living, breathing people who had families and friends who loved them. Every state got hit that day. No one was a lefty or righty on that day. I sat stunned…and then went for the phone to find out where my family members were. My NYC and DC area students were equally shocked and appalled.

    There are conservatives and liberals in the military. There are liberals and conservatives in the families and survivors of 9/11. There are conservatives and liberals serving in all parts of the war on terror. There are conservatives and liberals working in human rights organizations in Iraq.

    Traitor is a pretty heavy word with very serious implications and ramifications. To bandy it about as a political quip is beyond the pale.

  12. 12.

    Elsbeth

    June 24, 2005 at 9:59 pm

    Darrel,

    How dare you? The thousands of people who died on that bright day in September were people. They were not Rs or Ds. They were living, breathing people who had families and friends who loved them. Every state got hit that day. No one was a lefty or righty on that day. I sat stunned…and then went for the phone to find out where my family members were. My NYC and DC area students were equally shocked and appalled.

    There are conservatives and liberals in the military. There are liberals and conservatives in the families and survivors of 9/11. There are conservatives and liberals serving in all parts of the war on terror. There are conservatives and liberals working in human rights organizations in Iraq.

    Traitor is a pretty heavy word with very serious implications and ramifications. To bandy it about as a political quip is beyond the pale.

  13. 13.

    Elsbeth

    June 24, 2005 at 10:31 pm

    Sorry for the multiple posts. The screen kept saying “Oops.”

  14. 14.

    Darrell

    June 24, 2005 at 11:11 pm

    Traitor is a pretty heavy word with very serious implications and ramifications. To bandy it about as a political quip is beyond the pale

    I’m speechless. You are simply a lying piece of shit. there is no other way to describe your comments. Seriously. Where did I ever f*cking ‘bandy’ that word about. Provide evidence, show us where I ever said it, or STFU and apologize for your outrageous bullshit accusation.

  15. 15.

    Jim Goodfellow

    June 25, 2005 at 1:31 am

    Ok I am a leftie, but I understand the real politic of international polics and respect. Kick Ass is needed sometimes, but to screw it up and then claim that anyone who disagrees is a traitor is a bit over the top and a recipe for absolute diaster.

    Understand the utility of free speech is that truth has to fight with non truth. Any attempt to protect truth by respression is detremental to the county. There are 3 possibities, Liberals are wrong, Liberals are correct, or Liberals are partial correct. In the correct and partial cases allowing free speech contributes to the country.

    In the last case, is the truth of the Bush administration so weak that it has to be protected. ?

    It is the reality that truth has to fight in the public forum to keep strong. Else it dies.

    Either Rowe and co has truth or they do not.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. CommonSenseDesk says:
    June 24, 2005 at 10:07 am

    Is Rove Really That Smart?

    John Cole looks at the reasons behind Rove’s remarks.

  2. In Search Of Utopia says:
    June 24, 2005 at 9:04 pm

    All About Blowback….

    Karl Rove, Political Hatchetman and so called mastermind, may have really blown it the other night. I have been for the last two years trying to conduct a dialogue with the Right. It has been tough and lonely work. And…

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