This is a very simple, common sense diary.
It's about something that's very clear, something that is at the heart of what folks around the nation have been mulling over for a good, long while now, something that the collective judgement of Karl Rove will be a reflection of, but which is, at the end of the day, much bigger than Karl Rove.
And it's something that, if you ask me, all of us who are trying to engage our fellow citizens on the "other side" of the political spectrum need to understand.
It's very, very simple:
Either the Bush Administration and the GOP are a group of sincere, earnest patriots doing their best in trying times to serve our nation...
or they are the biggest bunch of liars, opportunists and hypocrites our country has ever seen.
There is not a lot of middle ground. And with the kind of lies the GOP has told, there never has been.
In fact, since 1994 the GOP has been intent on sucking up the middle ground with their venom and lies for political gain. (Think what they did to Vince Foster, to Bill Clinton, to Al Gore, to Max Cleland.) So much so, that I think all of us....and by that I mean all of us Democrats...are more than a little bit "whipped" by the exprience of having folks believe these lies and attacks over and over again.
Of course, it's no accident that we're split down the middle as a nation, that we're locked in a divisive battle. The GOP wanted it this way....that's how they play the game. They play politics the hardball way...to win. No matter what the cost. And folks who play hard and bank on the "Big Lie" know that there's always the risk of the "Big Downside." That hasn't stopped the GOP. We can't even begin to put up a list of divisive leaders like the one below:
Newt Gingrich.
Trent Lott.
Tom DeLay.
Dennis Hastert.
Bill Frist.
Karl Rove.
Dick Cheney.
George Bush.
They've played the divide and conquer card hard and long...they've asked our nation over and over again to "trust them"...to cut them the kind of slack that only patriots and heroes deserve...and we can only hope that maybe, at long last, it's beginning to dawn on middle America that they've been lied to about the most important things....and that those lies are beginning to catch up to the GOP.
We can only hope that regular folks are beginning to understand that...either these guys are patriots, "whistle blowers", upstanding Americans...or they're liars in it for the power.
Which one is it?
Either Abu Ghraib was the work of a few bad apples...or the guards were actually doing things that were approved by their superiors and common practice, things that, most of the time, were never caught on camera.
Which one is it?
Either Iraq had WMD and was an "imminent" threat to the security of our nation....or it didn't, and the Bush Administration lied when they led us into war in Iraq.
Which one is it?
Either Iraq, as our Vice President, Dick Cheney said, over and over again....was directly linked to the attack on our nation on 9/11 or it wasn't.
Which one is it?
Either this Administration had highly convincing evidence that, as Colin Powell reported to the UN and Condoleeza Rice authorized Bush to state in his 2003 State of the Union address....that Iraq had a burgeoning nuclear program that brought our nation face to face with a "mushroom cloud"...or it didn't
Which one is it?
Either John Kerry, as a young man, lied about wounds he received in combat and medals that he "didn't deserve", in anticipation of running for President in 2004....or he was smeared by the GOP in the most disgraceful attack on a combat veteran running for President in our nation's history.
Which one is it?
Either Karl Rove, who has had the full faith and confidence of the President of the United States, is worthy of that trust, and the trust of the American Public...or he is a political operative, a weasal, and a traitor who stooped to exposing a CIA agent working in service of our nation simply in order to attack a political enemy.
Which one is it?
Either / or.
It's simple. They've played this game against us. Hard.
It's been a long time coming.
But I think all of us hope that this "game" is going to come back and bite them in the ass.
And maybe all of us, in the next weeks and months can explain to our neighbors something that's been clear to us for years.
The GOP are liars.
We may differ in our political views. We may differ in our styles. We may differ even in what we think is best for our country. That much is fine and clear. It's American.
But if there is one thing we don't like in this country it's folks who lie to cover their ass....it's folks who lie about the most important things simply to make themselves look good.
Either / or.
That's what honesty is all about. There's no middle ground here. Schoolkids know that.
Which one is it?
Most folks know the answer to that question...it's just gonna take them some time to get their heads around it. If you ask me, I think folks can figure out that the real reason George Bush has never admitted he's made a mistake...the reason that he can't admit that he's made a single mistake...is that the mistakes George Bush and his Administration have made were deliberate. Honest mistakes in the name of patriotism can be forgiven...outright lying can't. Lying to our citizens by elected officials, and basing our nation's policies on those lies, is not acceptable, and never will be.
Let's all hope this "Karl Rove affair" helps folks see something that's been clear as day for over a decade....
the current leadership of the GOP from George Bush on down has betrayed our trust and isn't worthy of our respect, much less our votes.
And it's high time we as a nation do something about that too.