Rove slams Hillary, Democrats
Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 3:26 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
White House, Democrats
From NBC's Carrie Dann and Mark Murray
For the second time in two days, a high-ranking White House official has taken issue with Hillary Clinton's recent critical campaign TV ad of President Bush. Yesterday, it was White House spokeswoman Dana Perino; today, it's none other than outgoing political adviser Karl Rove.
Rove -- who called Clinton a "fatally flawed" candidate the day he announced his resignation -- dialed in to Rush Limbaugh's radio show today, where he slammed Clinton's record on both health care and national security issues. "I'm a little bit surprised that somebody with a record so weak on these things would somehow deign to lecture this president," he said.
Of course, as was mentioned yesterday, this kind of criticism from Rove is precisely what the Clinton campaign wants. The more the White House spars with her, the more it bolsters her anti-war credentials; placates liberals who are skeptical of her stands on some of the issues; and transforms her into a "change" candidate.
Much of Rove's critique was based on the strongly anti-Bush ad that Clinton's campaign just started running in Iowa. The ad, entitled "Invisible," alleges that Bush has ignored the health-care needs of everyday Americans and war veterans. Rove called the ad "over the top," saying that its accusations against the Bush Administration are "amazing" in light of Clinton's "spotty" voting record on health care. He added that the claim that Bush has neglected American troops is "egregious," and he accused Clinton herself of denying the military of needed tools by opposing measures like the Patriot Act and the terrorist surveillance program. "How did she vote on the surge?" Rove challenged.
In addition to hammering Hillary, Rove took shots at Democrats, who also have been critical of President Bush. He said that many of the president's most avid critics are "elite effete snobs," and later implied that their rhetorical pummeling of Bush signals weakness and disorganization within the Democratic Party. "The fallback position in politics is that if you don't know what you want to be about, if you don't know what your position is, go with somebody else," said Rove.
