Democrats need to yell more
Here’s Karl Rove on Democrats:
“Let me be as clear as I can be: President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they’re calling and why,” Mr. Rove said, referring to the program in which the National Security Agency eavesdropped on conversations without getting a warrant from a judge. “Some important Democrats clearly disagree.”
Here’s Howard Dean on Karl Rove:
“Rove’s political standing gets him an invitation to address Republicans in Washington, D.C., today, but it doesn’t give him the credibility to question Democrats’ commitment to national security,” Mr. Dean said. “The truth is, Karl Rove breached our national security for partisan gain and that is both unpatriotic and wrong.”
Mr. Dean is usually good for some fiery rhetoric. But here Rove wipes the floor with him. Read Rove’s statement again. Look how good he is at reducing the argument to extremely simple terms and making it seem like only an idiot would disagree. This is Bush’s best rhetorical tactic to, and I’d wager he didn’t get it by accident. It’s not a particularly honest tactic — for instance, the NSA has been snooping on plenty of people it’s not sure are al Qaeda. National security is actually complex, not simple. The Democrats (and I am by no means the first to say this) need some way to talk about this complexity without sounding like nerds.
Maybe the key is to harp like hell on civil liberties: “Republicans want to be your Big Brother! They say they want to promote freedom overseas, but they’re destroying your freedoms here at home!” Hear that, Hillary? Destroying!
January 20th, 2006 at 5:11 pm | Promoted
I agree. Just like abortion and gay marriage, I think national security and civil liberties are issues where the Democrats would do well to start fighting the GOP’s big arguments with big arguments of their own.
If only the Democrats could eloquently present to the public the case against domestic wiretapping, without resorting to Hillary and Ted Kennedy style blustering. Unfortunately, when you’re not the president, blustering gets more attention than acting presidential. Such is the curse of being the minority party.
January 20th, 2006 at 9:09 pm | Promoted
Karl Rove says that President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they’re calling and why.”
That is simply NOT the issue. It is the typical White House lie.
Rove is saying that anyone who objects to the President’s illegal behavior doesn’t care whether we know what Al Qaeda is doing.
That is simply NOT the issue.
The issue is whether the President of the United States can decide unilaterally to disregard the law.
Rove and his understudies are masters at changing the subject.
No one objects to protecting the country. But I have to believe that most sane Americans believe that the President should not be allowed to decide which laws he will observe and which ones he will disregard.
That is the issue and if the White House should not be allowed to get away with diverting attention from the real issue again.