The Words of a Traitor

Karl Rove had this to say about the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats when it comes to the War on Terror:

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove offered a biting preview of the 2006 midterm elections yesterday, drawing sharp distinctions with the Democrats over the campaign against terrorism, tax cuts and judicial philosophy, and describing the opposition party as backward-looking and bereft of ideas.

"At the core, we are dealing with two parties that have fundamentally different views on national security," Rove said. "Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn't make them unpatriotic -- not at all. But it does make them wrong -- deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."

Howard Dean had a pretty good response: "Karl Rove only has a White House job and a security clearance because President Bush has refused to keep his promise to fire anyone involved in revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative. * * * The truth is, Karl Rove breached our national security for partisan gain and that is both unpatriotic and wrong."

That's not bad, but it won't generate any headlines. Here's how I think the Democrats should respond:

We agree that the Democrats differ with Karl Rove on how to fight the War on Terror. Mr. Rove believes that the best way to fight this war is to intentionally out a covert CIA agent who was working on keeping WMD out of the hands of terrorists. The Democrats, however, do not believe that committing an act of treason is a particularly effective strategy.

Start upping the ante, folks.

UPDATE: During the above-referenced speech, Rove "used his platform to excoriate Democrats for 'wild and reckless and false charges' against Bush on the issue of domestic spying. . . ." Unfortunately for Rove, prominent Republicans are also speaking out on this issue:

Today on Fox News Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping program is illegal:

WALLACE: But you do not believe that currently he has the legal authority to engage in these warrant-less wiretaps.

MCCAIN: You know, I don't think so, but why not come to Congress? We can sort this all out. I don't think -- I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here's why we need this capability, that they wouldn't get it. And so let's have the hearings.

McCain is the latest addition to a growing list of prominent conservatives -- including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) -- who have expressed serious concerns about the legality of the program.

This is why I get angry when I hear so-called "Democratic" strategists saying that the Democrats should stay away from criticizing Bush's illegal wiretap operation because such criticism reinforces the perception that Democrats are weak on national security. Opposition to Bush's illegal spying activity is clearly bipartisan.

More on this later.