Nastiness from Rove and Kerry flack

How sad has our discourse become?

On Monday, Karl Rove used an unfortunate military metaphor to attack John Kerry and John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran and a former Marine colonel, respectively:

Rove told a New Hampshire audience Monday night that Democratic critics of the Iraq war such as John Kerry and John Murtha, both combat veterans, "give the green light to go to war, but when it gets tough, they fall back of that party's old platform of cutting and running. They may be with you for the first few bullets but they won't be there for the last tough battles."

Kerry spokesperson David Wade retaliated by calling Karl Rove fat:

Sen. John Kerry's spokesman, David Wade ... yesterday snarled at White House adviser Karl Rove for accusing Kerry and fellow Vietnam vet Rep. John Murtha of "cutting and running" from the war.

"The closest Karl Rove ever came to combat was these last months spent worrying his cellmates might rough him up in prison," said Wade. "This porcine political operative can't cut and run from the truth any longer. When it came to Iraq, this administration chose to cut and run from sound intelligence and good diplomacy. … In November, Americans will cut and run from this Republican Congress."

God bless America.

Comments

[SomeCallMeTim]

If you're a Democrat, this is excellent. Half of the discontent you see online is driven by a sense that our representatives are unwilling to hit back. That's part of why Reid is so popular, even when he makes apparent missteps, and even though his politics differ from those online: people think he's willing to hit back.

If I ever do support J. Edwards for President, it will be in no small part because, in the closing days of the '04 election, he noted that he'd played football while Bush was a cheerleader.

[Seth]

I could totally do without hearing the phrases "cut and run" or "culture of corruption" ever again.

[Jon Henke]

[the evolution of insults]

News Story from August 2008:

In a hastily called press conference yesterday, [the Republican Presidential candidate] claimed that, contrary to published reports, his mother did, in fact, wear combat boots. "My mother served proudly in those combat boots," said [x].

Democrats quickly responded with stories of their own mothers. "The Republicans claim their own mothers wore combat boots, but, due to Republican health care policies, not all Americans are lucky enough to do so. My mamma was so fat that when she sat around the house..."

[Measure for Measure]

Whatever happened to "Turnaround is fair play"?

Kerry's spokesman could have responded to the merits of George Bush's leading domestic policy advisor (Rove) in a calm and detached manner. But that would only enable the Republican's smear strategy. Which would be immoral.

There is no parallel here. Turnaround *is* fair play. It appears that Mr. Nynan is merely burnishing his pseudo-fairminded credentials. A true parallel would show some high profile Democrat actually *initiating* a smear.

Besides, Rove is fat: it's pretty rich for him to and his chickenhawk buddies to run on a platform of military prowess.