Karl Rove and more accusations


Are our friends on the Left shooting themselves in the foot?
This is not a defense of Karl Rove.

In an earlier post, I said that accusations have become more important than the evidence.

Me, I'm old fashioned. I want to see the evidence.

Now, my neighbor could say that Bill Clinton had sex with Elvis Presley's grandmother. But unless he can produce proof, I think I will hold off on the press conference.

Just because someone agrees with you doesn't make them credible. I'm still amazed that anybody in the press is still not questioning Joe Wilson. Here is a guy who lied, got caught by a Senate committee, managed to embarrass several newspapers, helped launch a case that just led to a major restriction of press freedom, and he is still quoted as an authority.

Getting back to Mr. Rove, to be honest with you, I can't believe any news editor worth their salt ran with this. Some of the most rudimentary fact checking that I did shows that this certainly wasn't the leak. If anything, Mr. Rove was hinting that Mr. Wilson shouldn't be trusted as a source.

That brings us to the real point of this post. I said earlier that I am not defending Mr. Rove. I'm not. Nor am I defending the Bush Administration. I think they have screwed up by the numbers on several things.

But these unfounded accusations only make the situation worse. First it sets up a standard where rumor and mudslinging is more important than someone's actual actions. This won't stop once the Republicans are out of office.

More importantly, all this "get Bush at any cost" is burying any real criticism of Bush in noise. It may get the base excited, but Democrats need at least some Republican voters if they are going to get their candidates elected. As "scandal" after "scandal" just sort of fizzles out, that decreases the chance that any moderates are going to listen as the next "scandal" comes along.

It couldn't work out better for the Republicans than if Mr. Rove himself was orchestrating this coverage.

Democrats will have to find something besides "Republicans are EEEEVILLLL!" if they want to appeal to more voters.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - July 15, 2005 at 09:04 PM  Tag


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