Friday
June 24 2005
THEY MUST BE KIDDING: Karl
Rove says at a Republican fundraiser that liberals are soft
on national security. How is this news? Because he made the critique
explicitly in the context of responding to September 11?
I'll grant
that Rove's parting shot about the "motives of liberals"
was over the top. Still, for about five years now liberals (by
which I mean most Democrats) have been running around the country
with a big, broad brush calling conservatives (by which they mean
most Republicans) evil, extremists, crooks, liars, thieves, theocrats,
bigots, homophobes, racists, sexists, etc. and impugning their
motives in any number of other ways on virtually a daily basis.
Karl Rove calls liberals a bunch of sissies a single time and
Democrats and the media have a collective seizure of apoplexy.
As for the
politics of the episode, Rove wins again. By making such a huge
fuss yesterday the Democrats looked immature, borderline hysterical,
and left the public with the impression that they doth protest
too much.
At some point
you would think Democrats would learn a couple of lessons about
dealing with situations like this. One is that an understated
response is often much more effective than a big public display.
Dismissal communicates confidence, not insecurity. The second
is that ridicule and sarcasm are extremely potent weapons that
can be used to make rhetorical bombs (like the one Rove threw
night before last) detonate in the thrower's face.
For example,
instead of holding a press conference, imagine if the same Democrats
had released a statement that went something like this:
"It's
no surprise that with support for the war in Iraq falling and
with the President having no plan to deal with issues at home
like healthcare and the rising deficit, Karl Rove is back to
his old tricks. We are disappointed to see Mr. Rove resort yet
again to exploiting the tragedy of September 11 to raise a few
dollars.
We'd
also like to remind America of the facts: under the leadership
of the Bush administration, since 9/11 more than $200 billion
in taxpayer money has been spent and more than 1,700 brave American
soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Osama
bin Laden is still at large. WMD still have not been found.
Today General John Abizaid testified before Congress that "there
are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six
months ago."
As
one of the most senior members of this Republican administration,
perhaps Mr. Rove should spend less time traveling around the
country raising money and more time back at the White House
providing President Bush with ideas to improve on such an inauspicious
record in fighting the War on Terror."
It's pretty
basic stuff: dismiss the charge, layout a brief factual critique/rebuttal,
and close with sarcasm. Understated, effective, and confident.
Instead,
we got a media circus complete with gnashing of teeth and cries
of indignation that made Democrats look silly and insecure - which,
by the way, is probably just what Karl Rove wanted us to get.
- T. Bevan 9:35 am Link
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