Rove's Philosophical Differences
By now, every Democrat with an Iowan in their address book has called for Karl Rove to apologize his remarks at a NY Conservative party event; there, he explained why God made Bush President. Because if the Democrats had been in power, they would have "wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." This seems unduly harsh; everyone knows that Democrats would have wanted to pull out the attackers' feeding tubes and cloned their babies. In any case, at today's noon briefing, WH spokesperson Scott McClellan cleared up the motivation for Rove's statement. Despite the President's distaste for "book learning," Rove is quite the philosopher (McClellan used some variation of "philosophy" over 20 times), focusing mainly on "different" ones ("different philosophies," 15 times). Sounds high-flautin, but the talk was C-student friendly -- through it all, Rove was "simply pointing out" (four times). Next week, John Snow on rich men getting into heaven!— WONKETTE
Digest of briefing after the jump.
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan [WhiteHouse.gov]
Q: Will Karl Rove will apologize, and is this elevating the discourse, the way you said the President will do?
Talking aboutdifferent philosophiesand different approaches? That's what Karl Rove was talking about. He was talking about thedifferent philosophiesand our different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . Karl wassimply pointing outthedifferent philosophiesand different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . . I think it's talking about thedifferent philosophiesfor winning the war on terrorism. . . . This is simply talking aboutdifferent philosophiesand different approaches. . . I think that Karl wassimply pointingoutthe different philosophieswhen it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . So he was talking about thedifferent philosophybetween conservatives and liberals anddifferent philosophyfor approaching the war on terrorism. . . . He was speaking to the New York Conservative Party and talking aboutdifferent philosophies-- a conservative philosophy and a liberal philosophy -- when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . Again, Ijust said that he was talking about the different philosophies. The President has talked about thedifferent philosophieswhen it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . . Karl wassimply talking about different philosophies, and we should be talking about what we stand for and how we want to move forward. . . .The President has spoken to conservative audiences, as well, and he'stalked about the different philosophieswhen it comes to how we govern and how we address the important priorities for the American people. [Rove] was speaking to the New York Conservative Party, and he was talking aboutdifferent philosophies-- the conservative philosophy and the liberal philosophy and how we're approaching different priorities for the American people. That's all it is.