Dan Froomkin: They Don't Apologize
Dan Froomkin, in Washington Post (6-24-05)
There are at least two reasons why no one should expect any apologies from Karl Rove or the White House for Rove's controversial comments Tuesday night, in which he described the liberal approach to national security as being weak and possibly even treasonous.
1) This White House doesn't apologize.
2) Why apologize when you said exactly what you meant to say?
Karl Rove didn't get George W. Bush this far just by luck. Rove has a brilliant and so far unbeatable strategy when it comes to political warfare: He doesn't defend his candidate's weaknesses, he attacks his opponent's strengths. Unapologetically.
Consider the 2004 campaign, when Rove was faced with a Vietnam problem. A war hero was running against his boss, who had opted to stay well out of harm's way. Rather than defend, Rove attacked -- and put John Kerry on the defensive.
Today, Democrats are uniting against the war and the public is increasingly worried and critical about Bush's leadership. So what's Rove doing? Rather than defend against their criticisms, Rove has decided to go for the jugular.
The most compelling anti-war arguments are that the war in Iraq was a diversion from the war on terror and that American troops are dying daily for no good reason. So Rove's response is to liken war critics to al Qaeda sympathizers intent on subverting the American military.
On Tuesday night, Rove said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks liberals "wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
And excoriating Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) for comments which he said put American troops in greater danger, Rove concluded: "No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
In the wake of a hue and cry from Democrats demanding that Rove apologize or be fired, the White House distributed the full text of Rove's remarks to the press corps yesterday and deployed a phalanx of spokespeople to rally round.
At yesterday's briefing, press secretary Scott McClellan said Rove was just "telling it like it is."
"Q So will the President ask Karl Rove to apologize?