Rove's comments were intentional

John Aravosis of AMERICAblog:

It's pretty clear now that this was a set up orchestrated by the White House in order to deflect attention away from the disaster that is the war in Iraq, and Bush's plumetting polls.

1. The White House released the TEXT of Rove's speech today. According to my sources who know about such things, that NEVER happens. This is prima facie evidence that the White House coordinated this thing from the beginning.

2. The RNC put out talking points today about how the Democrats "blamed America" for September 11. Those detailed talking points were clearly prepared well in advance of this noon today when this thing blew up. WE BLAMED AMERICA?

3. The RNC today reportedly released a new attack web ad going after Durbin for his comments about Guantanamo Bay. Isn't that convenient that something that took at least a few days to prepare was suddenly ready today at the same time that Karl Rove made his comments that anyone who recognizes that Bush has no idea what's going on Iraq is a traitor who loves Osama.

Folks, these bastards dropped a nuclear bomb on us today, and it was intentional. Senator Durbin learned the hard way that you can't reason with these people. Durbin apologized and what did it get him? He's in every one of their press releases and attack ads today.

President Bush thinks 57% of Americans are traitors who hate America, want to kill our military, and love Osama bin Laden. 57% of Americans are apparently happy, or at least not outraged, by the murder of nearly 3,000 people in NY, VA and PA.

Rove is a wily, evil, dirty cheater who'll throw whatever mud needs to be thrown in order to win. He's a master of sinking to the lowest depths to slog it out in the deepest trenches. We must refuse to join him down there, and instead fight back from up above.

Karl Rove should be fired or he should resign, and yes, these comments are despicable, BUT, there are still real issues to fight for - namely, the Downing Street Memo and the series of documents that have followed it. Rove's comments are a public ploy to distract from it.

We should condemn his comments quickly and then turn back to the real issues at hand, using them to push Rove & Co. into a corner.

This attack against Democrats shows us that the GOP is weak. It's like an admission. We should use that to our advantage. We must continue to push the Downing Street Memo, and keep asking tough questions.

And we must reframe. Speaking the truth alone will not set us free.