WELCOME INSTAPUNDIT READERS!!
First of all, Karl Rove is absolutely correct:
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…..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.
The White House response:
The White House defended Rove’s remarks and accused Democrats of engaging in partisan attacks. Rove, said spokesman Scott McClellan, “was talking about the different philosophies and our different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism.”
Can there be any doubt that what he said is true?
Exhibit A: First of all, Rove said “liberals”… not necessarily Democrats. But wow, the Democrats who, in the 2004 Presidential Election couldn’t run fast enough from the word “liberal” now seem to be embracing it wholeheartedly in their “outrage” I also never saw a Democrat refuse to take campaign money from MoveOn.org and their ilk. (Hat tip: JustOneMinute) (Karl Rove Brilliant Trap #1)
Exhibit B: It was in fact liberals/Democrats who said the following: (Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters, HughHewitt)
US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA): “He’s [Osama bin Ladin] been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven’t done that,” Murray said.
“How would they 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?” (GP Ed. Note: Yes, let’s help the terrorists build Islamists schools, Senator Murray….)
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), 10/1/01, Roll Call: “I truly believe if we had a Department of Peace, we could have seen [9/11] coming.”
Al Sharpton, 12/1/02, New York Times, on the 9/11 attacks: “America is beginning to reap what it has sown.”Rep. Marcy Kaptur, 3/1/2003, Toledo Blade: “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 cast off the British crown.”
Senator Joe Biden, 10/22/01 (on AFGHANISTAN campaign): ?How much longer does the bombing campaign continue?? Biden asked during an Oct. 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, no link)
Senator Joe Biden, 10/22/01: ?The Bombing Campaign, [Biden] Said, Reinforced Existing Stereotypes Of The United States As A ?High-Tech Bully ??? (Ibid.)
Representative Dennis Kucinich, 9/30/01: 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.? … ?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)
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)
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)
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)
John Kerry: “That is precisely what this administration has ignored. They looked to force before exhausting diplomacy. They bullied when they should have persuaded. They’ve gone it alone when they should have assembled a whole team. They have hoped for the best when they should have prepared for the worst. They’ve made America less safe than it should be in a dangerous world.” (Hat tip: AnkleBitingPundits)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA): ?I Am Convinced That Military Action Will Not Prevent Further Acts Of International Terrorism Against The United States.? (Eddy Ramirez, ?Calif. Congresswoman Alone In Vote Against War Powers Resolution,? [University Of California-Berkeley] Daily Californian, 9/17/01) (GP Editor’s Note: There hasn’t been an attack on America since 9/11.)
Since all these quotes are well-known and documented….I also label this as “Karl Rove Brilliant Trap #2.” The Democrats have fallen for the trap and this is now what the Sunday morning TV talk shows will be about.
Exhibit C: You have heard liberals/Democrats talk ad nauseum about their “support for the troops” though the oppose the War on Terror’s Iraq Theatre. Really? Then why are elected Democrats wildly exaggerating the abuses at Abu Grahib and Gitmo which, ironically, are the stories Al-Qaeda encourages its members to use in its own “terrorism handbook.”
“US Senator Dick Durbin: “If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control. You would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings.”
US Senator Ted Kennedy: ?Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam?s torture chambers reopened under new management: US management?. (GP Ed. Note: Kennedy also marked the 1st Anniversary of the revelations of the handful of abuses at the prison. Patriotic Americans celebrated the first anniversary of the toppling of Saddam’s statue.)
US Senator Pat Leahy: “Guantanamo Bay is an international embarrassment to our nation, to our ideals, and it remains a festering threat to our security,” Leahy said. “Our great country, America, was once viewed as a leader in human rights and the rule of law, and justly so. Guantanamo has undermined our leadership, has damaged our credibility, has drained the world’s goodwill for America at an alarming rate,” Leahy added.
And former DNC Terry McAuliffe spent millions of dollars and too much time demeaning the service of National Guard troops in his attempts to prop up the phony CBS documents questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era service.
Just yesterday….Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) told Rumsfeld to “get off your high horse” and stop answering questions “with a sneer.” (GP Ed. Note: Can you imagine if a Republican Senator had treated FDR’s War Secretary with this kind of disdain and disrespect during WWII? It is an outrage and demeaning to our troops.)
Also yesterday….”The United States needs to tell the Iraqis and the world that if that deadline is not met, we will review our position with all options open, including but not limited to, setting a timetable for withdrawal,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. (GP Ed. Note: That’s the message in a time of war.. let’s leave when the going gets tough. Imagine if a Republican Senator had suggested getting out of Europe during the Battle of the Bulge? Hey, Senator Levin.. we are AMERICANS, not the French.)
Let me stop and make a comment on this whole Gitmo “abuse” thing. I have sources who have contacts within the military who tell me there are abuses going on at Gitmo. People are being punched, people are having feces thrown on them and being spit at regularly.
No, the victims are not the terrorist prisoners….these abuses are happening TO US Armed Forces personnel. You know, the same ones who handle the Koran with rubber gloves. Why don’t we hear the Democrats actually DEFENDING our military men and women instead of just using the words “support the troops, oppose the war.”? Why aren’t Dems outraged at the torture of American troops in our own facilities?
(If any current or former US military personnel that can help me document these stories of terrorist torture of American troops at Gitmo… please contact me!)
Now back to the Rove comments. They were in my view is a brilliant chess-move by Karl Rove to refocus the country on the matters of national security and the War on Terror (Worldwide Theatres). There is no doubt in my mind that Republicans do see this as a war, while on the whole, Democrats/Liberals see this as a “police action”….in the words of John Kerry.
Karl Rove was spot on… and the Dems fell for the bait: Hook, Line & Sinker…
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