Giuseppe Abote comments:

Rove would love us to start a shitstorm on this. Anything to change the topic back to 9/11. The "apologize or resign" angle is good because it keeps the focus on Rove, not on 9/11 (or at least not directly on 9/11).

I'll never forget cowering in my apartment on the morning of 9/11 like a terrified fool and watching footage of burly cops running for their lives. The Fox network (yes, I was watching Fox) had brought some reporter down to like Canal Street and the cops were literally shoving this reporter out of their way as they fled the scene. That was when I realized the enormity of the situation, that even the people we paid and trained to protect us were scared shitless. Then came that garbled videotape left by the president on the run, the panicky claims that 4 more hijacked aircraft remained in the air, etc. No one knew anything and no one had a plan. The entire country was freaking out. There was no clarity, no resolve, aboslutely none.

Mr. Abote is absolutely right. Which is why it's that much more sad and pathetic when John Kerry blasts out an email quoting his speech yesterday on the Senate floor:

"None of us here will ever forget the hours after September 11... and the remarkable response of the American people as we came together as one to answer the attack on our homeland.... [I]t brought out the best of all of us in America.

"That spirit of our country should never be reduced to a cheap, divisive political applause line from anyone who speaks for the President of the United States.

"I am proud, as my colleagues on this side are, that after September 11, all of the people of this country rallied to President Bush's call for unity to meet the danger. There were no Democrats, there were no Republicans, there were only Americans. That is why it is really hard to believe that last night in New York... the most senior adviser to the President of the United States [was] purposely twisting those days of unity in order to divide us for political gain."

Does anyone know what the fuck Kerry is talking about? Does "the best of all of us in America" consist of panic, paranoia and helplessness followed by blind submission to the irrational and authoritarian agenda of a cowardly leader? Does "Bush's call for unity to meet the danger" mean Bush's proceeding to loot the treasury with tax cuts for the rich, bludgeoning political opponents with carefully orchestrated attacks on their patriotism, and plowing ahead with an Iraq war plan that was conceived before the terror attacks?

Maybe Kerry recalls (fondly, it seems) a time when "there were no Democrats," but I don't. And I'm pretty sure Rove would contest, with a smile, the claim that "there were no Republicans."

Why is it that Rove snaps his fingers and Democrats, including Kerry, start reciting parrot-like from an old script authored by their avowed enemies?