Karl Rove Should Resign
Thursday, June 23, 2005
When support for a war dwindles and a president’s poll numbers tank what is a political adviser to do?
If your name is Karl Rove and you work for George W. Bush you question the loyalty of the Americans who dare question your failed policies. The Washington Post reports:
In an unusually incendiary public attack on the political opposition, Karl Rove last night suggested that liberals sympathize with the enemy and are intent on endangering American troops.
"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," Rove said
In the days after 9/11, I signed on to the statement Deny Them Their Victory: A Religious Response To Terrorism. This is what we actually said:
First, we must find a word of consolation for the untold pain and suffering of our people. Our congregations will offer their practical and pastoral resources to bind up the wounds of the nation. We can become safe places to weep and secure places to begin rebuilding our shattered lives and communities. Our houses of worship should become public arenas for common prayer, community discussion, eventual healing, and forgiveness.
Second, we offer a word of sober restraint as our nation discerns what its response will be. We share the deep anger toward those who so callously and massively destroy innocent lives, no matter what the grievances or injustices invoked. In the name of God, we too demand that those responsible for these utterly evil acts be found and brought to justice. Those culpable must not escape accountability. But we must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life. We pray that President Bush and members of Congress will seek the wisdom of God as they decide upon the appropriate response.
Click here to read the full statement which was signed by over 3,000 prominent religious leaders across the nation.
Counseling sober restraint where the Bush Administration is involved is not an act of disloyalty. After all, this is the same administration that would later take us into a disastrous war based on deception. Had the president used sober restraint after 9/11 the American people would have been safer and the world better off.
Rove should either apologize to the American people for his remarks or resign his position.