Rove must go. Simple as that.

Karl Rove's sickening comments Wednesday night prove that the George W. Bush administration is out of control. His impugning of the patriotism of the Loyal Opposition hearkens back to the House Unamerican Activities Commission and the Joe McCarthy hearings of the 1950s; and to the red-baiting of those who openly protested against the US entering World War I.

Using the snarl-word "Librul," he characterized the actions of Democrats after 9/11 as "[wanting] to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." What is the color of the sky on Rove's planet? I remember 9/11 very well, and remember that both sides of the aisle were howling for Osama bin'Laden's blood. If we had gone into Afghanistan with the gusto we eventually turned on Iraq, we would have had his head on a stake in a few short days.

Have you forgotten this fact, Mr. Rove?



Six months after 9/11, George W. Bush scaled back the search for bin'Laden and, as the Downing Street Minutes point out, began "fixing" his case for invading Iraq. America had bipartisan support and international backing for storming into Afghanistan to obliterate al'Qaeda and their Taliban allies. If we had turned Afghanistan into a smoking radioactive crater and Osama bin'Laden with it into radioactive pink vapor stew (thank you, Fishbone, for the description) the world might have been taken aback, but would have at least understood.

Evidence is growing that George W. Bush wanted to invade Iraq even before he was elected President the first time. As far back as 1999 he was publically questioning his own father's actions during the Gulf War. After he was inaugurated after the questionable 2000 election, one of the first things Dubya wanted to do was find some pretense, any pretense, for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam.

It is becoming clearer and clearer that Iraq was a personal vendetta against Saddam, who was pinned down between two "No Fly Zones" and whose government was crippled by UN sanctions. He was bottled up as neatly as a Djinn in a bottle, and nobody was especially interested in pulling that cork.

As it stands now, the fate of Iraq seems to be sealed as that of a client state of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a pitiful mirror of the relationship between Syria and Lebanon. It is precisely the state of affairs that motivated Generals Norman Schwartzkopf, Colin Powell and Eric K. Shinseiki to counsel against moves against Saddam.

Those who have the courage to question Bush and his minions about this fool's errand are now being held up as "traitors" by Rove and by like-minded ("mind" might be charitable here) pundits. This is unacceptable. In free countries, the opinions of the Loyal Opposition are respected. In the increasingly more and more unfree United States of America, public ridicule might be the first step. Will the next be anti-"Librul" pogroms, political show trials, and a new wing of Gitmo for bloggers, opposition pundits and activists?

Cue Frank Zappa's immortal song Concentration Moon...