Rove, Dean and Loose Lips

We seem to have a problem in this country with people who can't control their tounges. Instead of being simply critical with those who disagree with them, but instead these people decide to decimate the opposition and make wide sweeping generalizations of the other side. On the Democratic side we have people like Howard Dean who talks about hating "Republicans and everything they stand for," or about how Republicans never working a day in their lives. On Wednesday, White House strategist Karl Rove excoriated liberals about how they were rather weak on 9/11. Like Howard Dean, this was a wide swipe. Yes, there are liberals that are pretty weak on defense issues, but that doesn't mean you take out all liberals. And it's just a lie to say that all liberals were weak in the knees. As Alan at the

People like Dean and Rove love giving their bases "red meat." However, such rhetoric doesn't bring America together, it divides. Yellow Line notes:

All but one elected Democrat in congress voted for the military action in Afghanistan. For goodness sake, even FRANCE supported military action.

Andrew Sullivan notes:

Sure, there were some on the hard left who really did jump to blame America for the evil perpetrated by the monsters of 9/11. I took names at the time. But all "liberals"? The New Republic? Joe Lieberman? Hitch? Paul Berman? The Washington Post editorial page? Tom Friedman? Almost every Democrat in the Congress who endorsed the war in Afghanistan? You expect that kind of moronic extremism from a Michelle Malkin, but from the most influential figure in an administration leading a country in wartime?

He is correct. I would add the New Republic magazine as well. Yes there are a few who do excuse the terrorists. But again, that's not all of them.

And you might want to see what that pacifist Jeff Jarvis says.

This is yet another indication of the loss of the political center in America. The Deans and Roves of this world only care about the base. We need more centrists that can come forward and speak out, bringing more healing voices and less hurtful talk.

Update: Rick Heller of Centerfield makes a compelling argument for how Roves words were even more hurtful than Howard Dean's. He notes:

These are vicious remarks, and they are worse than Howard Dean's about Republicans. Dean's remarks were merely insulting, but they were not insidious, because no one would believe that most Republicans have never done an honest days work in their lives. What Rove is doing, by contrast, is a more calculated smear, conflating the sins of the far left, and applying them to mainstream Democrats.

I have agree. He has basically said the opposition are traitors-something you can't knowingly apply to all Dems.

It's one thing to criticize the Dems on foreign policy. I've done that. But I've never called them traitors. Rove should be ashamed, but he isn't. I'm saddened for how callous American politics have become.