Rove Blames War on Daschle

If you ever suspected Karl Rove was nuts, now you know he is. Ever since escaping the asylum, he’s been running around like a madman, blaming the Iraq war on Democrats.

He started it on “Charlie Rose.” He repeated it on “Fox News Sunday.” Back in 2002, he says, President Bush was in no hurry to go to war. He wanted to give U.N. inspectors more time. But Democrats in Congress, led by Rep. Tom Daschle (S.D.), insisted on scheduling a vote on Iraq — in October 2002, before the midterm elections.

It’s an interesting theory. There’s only one problem with it: It is absolutely, totally, no-doubt-about-it FALSE. Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was on the scene at the time. Like all the rest of us, he remembers well who was driving the issue. “It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress,” insists Fleischer. “I think Karl in this instance just has his facts wrong.”

Indeed. As we all remember, it was George Bush who forced U.N. inspectors out of Iraq. It was officers of the Bush White House who publicly attacked Hans Blix. And, when he sent the war resolution to Congress, it was George Bush himself who said: “We’ve got to move before the elections” — meaning the midterm elections of November 2002.

Whatever you think about this war, one thing is certain: It is George Bush’s war. He started it, he directed it, he screwed it up, and now he can’t find his way out of it.

For Karl Rove to try to re-invent history by blaming the timing of the war on Tom Daschle — it’s nuts.

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