Posted by Damozel | At the end of his Wednesday night interview with Karl Rove, Charlie Rose asked Rove, "What makes you so evil?" Inquiring minds want to know! But Rove didn't seem to know. Instead, he blamed the internets. (The Raw Story)
"Well I can’t answer that completely....I do have a theory though about the Internet. I think the Internet grants people a pseudo-anonymity that allows them to say things that they would never say to somebody in person and never put in a letter but would feel comfortable saying as accepted political discourse on the Internet, and after awhile it becomes ingrained in accepted practice.” (The Raw Story)
To which Rose replied: "It seems to go deeper." Yes, that's right. But poor old Rove said the answer is "beyond him." I am sure.
Meanwhile, Think Progress (via Memeorandum)begs to differ with Rove's contention that the Administration didn't want to hold the pre-Iraq war right before the 2002 elections. "We don’t determine when the Congress vote on things. The Congress does," said Rove. Watch him say it here.
Think Progress says:
Rove’s claim is utterly dishonest and flat-out false. In Sept. 2002, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) asked President Bush to delay the vote on the Iraq war:
“I asked directly if we could delay this so we could depoliticize it. I said: ‘Mr. President, I know this is urgent, but why the rush? Why do we have to do this now?’ He looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: ‘We just have to do this now.’”
While some Democrats — particularly Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) — were arguing that it was “imperative” that Congress vote immediately to authorize war, had the White House wanted to delay the vote until after the 2002 elections, they would have found a great deal of support. Here’s what a few key leaders were saying at the time:
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL): “It would be a severe mistake for us to vote on Iraq with as little information as we have. This would be a rash and hasty decision.”
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA): “I do not believe the decision should be made in the frenzy of an election year.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): “I know of no information that the threat is so imminent from Iraq” that Congress cannot wait until January to vote on a resolution.
But Karl Rove and President Bush weren’t interested in delaying the vote. Rather, the administration actively politicized it. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “Delaying a vote in Congress would send the wrong message.” President Bush explicitly told Congress to “get the issue done as quickly as possible“....“People are going to want to know, before the elections, where their representatives stand,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-VA.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “This could be the vote of the decade, so why wait?” (TP; all links in original)
D Cupples said, "Maybe he's lying just because he's a liar?"
Memeorandum buzz here, especially here: Liberal Values, Raw Story Breaking News and The Carpetbagger Report
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LINKED
Rove Tries To Rewrite History: Claims WH ‘Opposed’ Politicizing Pre-War Iraq Vote (Think Progress)
Charlie Rose to Karl Rove *What makes you so evil?* (The Raw Story)
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