It is often uncanny how much GP and I agree. Last night, after finishing my post on the reaction to Senator Durbin’s remarks, I scribbled a few notes on topics to blog on today. When I checked the blog this morning as I enjoyed my oatmeal, I was delighted to see that GP had already blogged on two of them, the Kelo decision and the Democratic reaction to Karl Rove’s statement.
When the Senate’s Number Two Democrat compared the actions of U.S. troops to those of the worst tyrannies of the last century, his critics provided numerous examples of the crimes of those thugs and murderers to distinguish them from the alleged abuses at Guantanamo. Now, it is Mr. Rove’s defenders who are providing numerous examples to rebut the critics.
My blog-league provided several. You can also follow the links provided in Instapundit’s post on the topic. (Instapundit has since shown why he’s such a brilliant blogger as he quoted from Bruce’s post in his copious compendium.)
Hillary, Charles Schumer (the other Senator from New York) and other Democrats have raised a ruckus over Rove’s remarks. Yet, in so doing, they show their true colors. As New York Governor George Pataki put it:
I think it is a little hypocritical of Senator Clinton to call on me to repudiate a political figure’s comments when she never asked Senator Durbin to repudiate his comments. Senator Clinton might think about her propensity to allow outrageous statements from the other side that are far beyond political dialogue –insulting every Republican, comparing our soldiers to Nazis or Soviet gulag guards–and never protesting when she serves with them.
Hillary’s faux outrage confirms a point I had made in a previous post, “It seems that Democrats determine right or wrong in terms of party affiliation.”
Governor Pataki went on to say he was “very proud of the way” the president acted in the wake of the attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001, “the resolve he showed” and he questioned “whether or not we would have seen that same response out of Al Gore had he been elected.”
Despite his flaws, President Bush should great strength, great determination in the wake of 9/11. While I was upset with him in late February 2004 for backing the Federal Marriage Amendment (so upset indeed that I wrote in Rudy Giuliani for President in the California Republican Primary the following week), as I watched him stand firm while our military suffered setbacks in Iraq, I recalled his leadership in those difficult days after 9/11. I knew what we were up against. Once again, I supported the president. He knew how to stand up to terrorists. I resolved once again to vote for him and this time was unafraid to tell that to my friends and acquaintances. As this blog shows, I supported him enthusiastically during the fall campaign.
The president stood firm in the fall of 2001 when many, Democrats, those who call themselves liberal and those who refuse that description, feared the worst. (Bruce references several such remarks in his post below.) They spoke of quagmire in Afghanistan, suggested other means to deal with the terrorists. Many tried to explain the actions of the terrorists in terms of “Western colonialism, racism, Christianity, and gender bias.” Yet, just as Obiwan Kenobi knew that Emperor Palpatine was evil, so does President Bush know that Osama and terrorists and certain despots are evil.
Karl Rove offered a fair, a trenchant, observation of contemporary liberal attitudes toward terrorism and despotism. If Mrs. Clinton and her allies are offended by his remarks, then they should have challenged them as conservatives challenged Senator Durbin’s. They should have provided examples where liberals showed resolve similar to that of the president. They may be too late. For while the Democrats were whining, conservatives, pundits, bloggers and even politicians provided numerous examples of the liberal attitude that Rove described to make their case.
Personally, I think my blog-league was among the best in assembling such examples, especially when he noted that Rove used the word, “liberals,” instead of “Democrats.” (Instapundit seems to agree.) Karl Rove set a trap and Democrats took the bait, giving Republicans and conservatives a chance to prove that while our man W stood firm, many of his adversaries wavered.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com