The Rove / Bush AWOL repsonse is the same as the Bush torture response.

[TWiley]

Rove leaked false documents to the 60 minutes reporter. Suddenly, the issue is about the fake document, and not the fact that bush went AWOL. Bush skated in the republican dominated press, and the reporter got fired.

The republiturd attack on Pelosi is the same logical structure. Suddenly, it is not about bush and torture, it is about Pelosi and her thoughts about the CIA

To the public: False AWOL document = false AWOL claim. Reporter fired.
To the public: False CIA information about torture given to Pelosie = False torture information today. Speaker fired. In both cases the underlying claim against bush is true.

Dont forget the context of political climate either. Wounded Vets were called unpatriotic in the republican press for questioning the Bushtapo, and there was a get behind our policy or get in front of our guns mantra propagated by the bushtapo.

It is important to speak clearly, and dont let these fuckers use the same trick again.

I smell Rove, and he don't smell nice.

[starroute]

1. Only the Bush AWOL story wasn't false documents

This was discussed here extensively at the time. The CBS memos were apparently copies of real originals -- they were full of little irregularities that showed they must have been created on a variety of old typewriters and could not have been created on a computer -- but since there was no paper trail for their origin, it was impossible to prove that.

What Rove *did* to was to gin up a shitstorm of doubt about the CBS memos -- and then use that to cast doubt on any related claims, no matter how well documented.

In the current case, I can't see the CIA giving false information to Pelosi in 2002 so that it could be used to entrap her in 2009. Even Rove isn't that prescient.

But what they do have in common is the shitstorm technique. Throw so much dirt at your opponent that some of it is bound to stick -- and thus create a public perception that they're lying so that anything else they say seems like a coverup.

And your basic point that Rove may be behind the smearing of Pelosi may be correct. That's certainly something to think about.

[emulatorloo]

2. Republican 101 - Muddy the waters, distract, and accuse Dems of what you are guilty of

Doesn't take Rove to do this, all of their operatives went to Republican *sshole school