The Motives of Liberals

Think Senator Durbin's remarks were bad? Karl Rove's are worse. Last week, Durbin made a stupid comparison for rhetorical purposes. Last night, Rove saw that and raised it. The New York Times reports that, at a fundraising dinner in Manhattan, the Prince of Darkness said that

"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 also said that American armed forces overseas were in more jeopardy as a result of remarks last week by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who compared American mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime—Pol Pot or others."

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Mr. Rove asked. "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."

That's as despicable as it gets. And it's inexcusable. But it makes me wonder. If Durbin's foolish comparison was motivated by a desire to aid the enemy, what motivated Rumsfeld not to send enough troops or armor, Bush not to plan for the war's aftermath, Rice not to act on intelligence before 9/11, and all of them to rush to war, knowing the alleged threat wasn't imminent but the timing was politically expedient?

In any case, Josh Marshall astutely observes that "these statements are meant to outrage you. You're a targeted audience. They're meant to perpetuate a state of maximal polarization in this country—the state of affairs most suited for vampires like Mr. Rove to suck the nation dry."

If your representative is a Republican, encourage him to make Rove apologize. (Article via TPM; apology link via Atrios.)

UPDATE: The Republican National Committee aids the enemy. From Wonkette:

Today, the Republican National Committee released an ad called "Wild Thing." And guess what? It features Dick Durbin's remarks about detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay. The same words that are putting our troops in greater danger, and yet the RNC is emailing the ad to "15 million grassroots supporters" and posting it at GOP.com, where terrorists, Al Jazeera producers, and the liberal saboteurs who want to undermine this great country of ours and put our troops at risk have access to it! Is it time to put Ken Mehlman on the Noodles Jefferson diet?