WASHINGTON — A partisan furor erupted Thursday as Democrats assailed President Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove, for criticizing liberals over what he described as a tepid response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war. Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said Wednesday night at a Manhattan gathering of the Conservative Party of New York state.
Democrats said Rove's comments represented an attempt to exploit the fight against terrorism for political gain. But the White House rejected that claim and turned aside Democratic demands for an apology or a presidential condemnation.
The flap came two days after Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the chamber's second-ranking Democrat, apologized for comparing the treatment of detainees in the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the methods used by Nazis and other brutal regimes. Republicans had demanded the apology for several days.
Together, the events underscored the depth of bitterness between the two political parties in Washington.
After excerpts of Rove's speech began circulating Thursday morning, Democrats unleashed a barrage of criticism.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Rove should "immediately and fully apologize" or resign.
Democratic senators from the three states that lost the most lives on Sept. 11 -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- denounced Rove's comments as inflammatory, insulting, unacceptable and opportunistic.
Among them was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. At a hearing of the Armed Services Committee, she said that Rove's comment "politicizes and turns into a partisan game something as serious as the attack on our nation on Sept. 11, and something as deadly as the conflict in which we are currently engaged."
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, took to the Senate floor and denounced Rove's statements as "a cheap and divisive political applause line" and an "outrageous attempt to divide the nation."
During an unusually contentious daily briefing Thursday at the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan said repeatedly that Rove was "simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism."
