Leading Democrats reacted furiously on Thursday to remarks by White House adviser Karl Rove suggesting that Democrats had responded to the Sept. 11 attacks by wanting to "prepare indictments and offer therapy," with some calling for him to apologize or resign.
The remarks also rippled through New York political circles, putting two top Republicans, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki, on the defensive in the state that bore the brunt of the 2001 terror attacks.
Rove made the comments during a fundraiser in Manhattan on Wednesday, saying: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and 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."
"Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said, `We will defeat our enemies,'" Rove continued at a gathering in midtown Manhattan for the Conservative Party of New York State. "Liberals saw what happened to us and said, `We must understand our enemies.'"
cascade of criticism
This led to a cascade of criticism from Democratic lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, where Republicans have sought to put the party on the defensive for days after leading Democratic Senator Richard Durbin compared abusive treatment of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the war crimes of the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge.
"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign," Democratic Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader, said in a statement. "Dividing our country for political gain is an insult to all Americans and to the common memory we all carry with us from that day."
strenuous defense
The White House immediately rejected the Democrats' demands for an apology, offering a strenuous defense of Rove and suggesting that his statements had been taken out of context.
"Karl was simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"If people want to try to engage in personal attacks instead of defending their philosophy, that's their business," McClellan said. "But it's important to point out the different approaches to this when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. That's all he was doing."
A ranking Republican official later argued that Democrats were blowing Rove's comments out of proportion, noting that his comments specifically referred to the post-Sept. 11 positions of Web site MoveOn.org, filmmaker Michael Moore and Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, not congressional Democrats or the party itself.
The back and forth over Rove's comments came after Republicans spent days pummeling Durbin for likening US mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS