Karl Rove Spins Scandals As Wins For GOP

Last week, the President made a call (in his own way) for respectable political debate in this election year.

Karl Rove comes out of hiding to demonstrate this for us...

NY Times: In Preview of G.O.P. Campaign, Rove Tears Into Democrats

...For 26 minutes, after calling for civility in politics in a packed speech before the Republican National Committee, Mr. Rove offered a lacerating attack on Democrats that other Republicans said was a road map for how the party would deal with a tough electoral environment. Mr. Rove sharply criticized Democrats for their opposition to tax cuts and Mr. Bush's Supreme Court nominations, but he left little doubt that once again - as has been the case in both national elections since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - that he was intent on making national security the pre-eminent issue in 2006.

Mr. Rove speeches this early in an election year have proved to be accurate predictors of what Republican candidates would say in the fall, and thus every seat in the ballroom at a downtown Washington hotel was filled. He lacerated Democrats for what he described their "cut and run" policy on Iraq, for blocking a renewal of the broad antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, and for challenging the legality of the administration's widespread use of warrantless wiretaps in the face of widespread criticism.

Mr. Rove made no mention of Republican opposition to both the Patriot Act and the surveillance program, which has posed a political problem for this White House, while he laid out his case against the Democrats, speaking rapidly...

Bold added by me.

Also, Rove continued the White House strategy of misdirection on the wiretapping scandal...

"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."

NO. THEY DON'T. No one in Congress disagrees with the NSA spying on Al Qaeda members. NO ONE.

Now please explain to us why this was done without FISA rubberstamp approval. [*waits as sagebrush rolls by*]

Exactly.

Karl, do America a favor and go back to pacing in your office waiting for the other Fitzgerald shoe to drop.