IndependentReport reacts to the following comments by Rove:
"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," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.
Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."
With a scathing
open letter
Excerpts after the break.
From an open letter to Karl Rove:
Let me offer a correction, Mr. Rove. When you say that conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11, don't you mean they saw an excuse to engage in a war they'd already planned? Wouldn't you also say that many rapid, hive-minded conservatives also saw 9/11 as an excuse to return to the most base of human behavior--a savagery against our fellow man that continues unabated in the dense, hot cells of Guantanamo Bay? I would. And unlike the honorable senator from Illinois, I will not apologize for saying that you, above many others, have propelled America backwards towards an unthinking, nationalistic fervor unseen since the days of Hitler or Stalin. And when you accuse liberals of offering aid and comfort to a nameless, faceless enemy, take a moment and realize that if the U.S. did not practice in and condone torture of foreign citizens, we liberals wouldn't be able to call you on it.
Make no mistake, Mr. Rove: I am more proud of my country than I have ever been, but it is not because we invaded Iraq and disposed a doddering old man who may well be the Middle East's King Lear. No, I am more proud of this country than ever because people are less likely to be swayed by your empty posturing. People grow tired of your colleagues' poorly-executed war plan. They're tired of expensive health care. They're tired of pouring money into the coffers of the insurance companies. There are some of us who are tired of your pandering to out-dated energy technologies. I, for one, wonder why you're faith in America is so feeble that you're unwilling to task this great nation with great things. New energy sources. Modernized health care. A truly secure financial future for our aging population and a healthy, erudite present for our most precious resource.
Mr. Rove, pointing fingers is easy. The status quo is easy. Even easier, as your party has shown time and again, is a slip back into the past. Torture, religious fundamentalism, intolerance, the disintegration of workers' rights--I can't understand why a party that so often relies on the rhetoric of progress and the future seems so intent on propelling the country back to the 19th century.