What A Hack

I almost hurled today watching Chris Wallace verbally jack off Karl Rove on Fox News Sunday. He was cumming all over himself. "Oh Mr. Rove, it's so great to have you here" blah blah blah.

Now, I will admit, I didn't see the entire interview, so perhaps my perception is tainted by that. But, in the portion I saw, I heard no hardball questions, like he asked Bill Clinton. The toughest question I heard was when he asked "how do you feel about Joe Wilson?" Rove simply said, "I'm not going to talk about that. Nice try Chris." Any follow-up to that? Any probing? Hell no, Wallace just moved on to show an embarrassing video clip of Rove doing a sketch as a rap singer at a White House dinner.

What really pains me is that Chris is the son of Mike Wallace, a true journalist. Someone for whom I have the greatest respect. The apple certainly fell far away from the tree on that one.

Oddly, I was fairly impressed with Rove himself. Like the devil, he can be very charming. I took great interest in what he had to say about turning perceived strengths into weaknesses. He said that candidates frequently exaggerate their strengths, and if one digs deeper, one can find that the perceived strength can actually be a weakness.

I think the Democrats should learn a lesson from Rove. George Bush was perceived as the country's best hope against terrorism, and that's why he won. But, who was asleep at the wheel in the month before 9/11, vacationing in Texas? Who ignored CIA briefings that were titled something like "Al Qaeda plans to use airplanes to attack inside the US" a full month before 9/11????

Today, Rudy Giuliani claims to be the best candidate to handle terrorism. But, who insisted that New York's Emergency Management Office be placed in the World Trade Center, over the objections of the experts, and despite the fact that the World Trade Center was a high-profile target that had been attacked once before?

Karl Rove is right. When you dig under the surface, you find the real truth. Actions speak louder than words. The Democrats would do well to follow his example.