Melanie Morgan

WOW! I don't say that often in a positive sense but WOW!

Outgoing presidential adviser Karl Rove appeared on Fox News Sunday this week where he was promptly ambushed by host Chris Wallace, and promptly turned into the ambush, opened fire on full automatic and left the field victorious.

Wallace wasted no time in going after Rove, showing part of a speech Rove had given a few years back in which he was critical of Democratic Party leaders and their weak-kneed stance on national security and the War on Terror.

After the tape played, Wallace turned on Rove, expecting to see him rocked back on his heels defending himself. That, after all, is the classic attack mode of modern talk television. Take a portion of what a person says, wrap it in a different light, and leave the target flopping like a fish out of water trying to explain their positions.

And all too often it works. All too often, politicians or pundits respond by waffling, or explaining, or backing away from what they said, and end up looking weak and indecisive.

To say that Rove was having none of that is putting it mildly. To say that Rove turned the segment right back on Wallace and stuck it to him is getting warmer. To say that Rove stuck it to Wallace wrapped in barbed wire and razor blades is right on target.

Rove responded not by getting defensive, but by pointing out that the segment of the speech shown was just that, only a smidgen and taken in this case horribly out of context. Rove then proceeded to put it in context - that he was talking about some horrendously dangerous, some might even say treasonous, comments by members of the Democratic leadership at that time.

These comments included that we should have 'negotiated' with the Taliban rather than kicking their asses in Afghanistan, and what is possibly the most heinous of all commentary out of the Democratic Party since 9-11, when Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin compared US troops to the murderers who served under Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot.

Rove then added to Wallace, on full attack mode, "I have a copy of that speech with me. I'm sure you haven't read it, so I'll leave it for you."

Rove didn't back off his previous commentary, he stood by it, and repeated it without apology or fear. Note to aspiring office holders: watch this segment and watch Rove. Then find yourself a media relations expert who can help you achieve this level of competence under fire.

Before I go further let me note, I genuinely respect Chris Wallace and his approach on FNS. I have heard he is a Democrat, but you wouldn't know it by the way he works. His questioning of Rove was no different than the manner in which he has approached interviews with Democratic leaders, and he may well have been playing devil's advocate, or just doing his job as an investigative journalist.

I also should point out that I have never met Karl Rove, we don't travel in the same circles, and I doubt he will ever call me for advice or just to chat. As my friend Melanie Morgan pointed out once when we were discussing those of us "out here" in America, versus the inside-the-beltway crowd, I don't know his email address and I don't have his cell phone number on my speed dial list.

But what I saw on FNS this Sunday marks the difference in how people without Rove's obvious talents handle a tough interview, compared to his approach. He showed in mere seconds why he is considered brilliant by his supporters, and his reviled by his enemies.

Rove's methodology Sunday was a textbook example of what I teach my clients, including politicians and others who expect to be involved with the media. It generally takes considerable practice under the right conditions to become at ease in a tough interview when the lights and cameras are on you, and Rove showed that he either has done phenomenal work to get to this stage or he is a natural.

It didn't stop with his speech either. Later Wallace tried to pry inside information from Rove on the still yawned-about Valerie Plame affair. But Rove noted that even though Plame and her husband Joe Wilson couldn't get past first base legally or in Congress, they still are attempting to pursue a civil suit in that ludicrous engagement, and there is little he can say on that issue without exposing himself to further litigation.

When Wallace pointed out that the civil suit has been dismissed, Rove noted that the Plames - or is it the Wilsons? - have said they will appeal that dismissal so the case may yet go before another tribunal. "Nice try," was Rove's answer when Wallace asked the same question a half-dozen different ways.

Rove did leave two interesting points of information though - that he had never leaked Plame's name to anyone, that her name was already being bandied about inside the beltway when he was first asked about her by someone who already knew who she was, and that his only other comment to a reporter was that he (Rove) didn't think the situation was worthy of a story.

And from that ladies and gentlemen we get a full-blown inside-the-beltway scandal that involves thousands of hours of Congressional testimony and research, not to mention legal and staff costs in the millions, and the destruction of a least one career, - Lewis 'Scooter' Libby - not for doing anything wrong, but for having a fallible memory.

And the Democratically controlled Congress wonders why virtually no one in America thinks it is doing a good job?

The left continues to hammer away at President Bush's approval ratings, which have been on the rise ever since the White House went on the offensive and started telling America what is really going on in our government instead of reacting turtle-like to every newly manufactured controversy.

But that is obviously just a time-worn leftist method of deflecting attention from the numbers that matter most, the numbers of Americans who think Congress should be flushed down the Potomac if it wasn't for the environmental damage and resultant fish kill.

There are myriad lessons to be learned from Rove's appearance on Fox News Sunday. The most basic of them are: know your subject; don't allow yourself to be intimidated; don't hesitate to set the record straight when a journalist phrases it inaccurately or unfairly; and don't fall into the trap of explaining yourself. Restate your positions in front of a hostile audience with the same conviction you use with a friendly audience.

Oh, and for the left-wing extremists who are destroying the Democratic Party, and attempting to destroy America too: It is impossible to be regarded as Eagles when you act like turkeys.

Leahy A MoonBat-Man Extra!

Briefly, because it isn't worth more than a brief mention, did you see in the news that Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the most weak-kneed liberal in the Northeast, which is really saying something, has a role as an extra in the latest Moon-Batman movie?

Seems the ultra-liberal apologist senator spends an inordinate amount of time reading comic books, and fantasizing about being a superhero!

Before you get all defensive here, I don't believe there is anything wrong with most comics, as long as you keep them in perspective. I personally like Mad Magazine and have since the early 60s. But I am not a Senate committee chairman, and I don't envision myself playing Spy vs. Spy from dawn to dusk.

Leahy, on the other hand, obviously has a difficult time separating his fictional superhero self from reality.

Thus, I have a suggestion for the producers. How about we rewrite the ending so the "distinguished gentleman" ends up leaving a very public, political career and retires to the deep woods of the Northeast Kingdom where he lives in a deer camp, reads comic books every waking hour, talks to Bambi, and contemplates his navel?

Then we can sit back and wait to see if life will imitate art!

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!

Tennyson's closing stanza to his poem Ulysses could well describe many of our nation's veterans, especially those of us from the Vietnam era and earlier, who once again will be gathering in Washington, D.C., to offset planned anti-military, pro-terrorist rallies scheduled for mid-September.

The anti-democracy, pro-communist, pro-terrorist organization ANSWER, backed by liberal money, will again turn out demonstrators, some paid, some uninformed, some horribly lacking in basic intelligence, to disparage our form of government, intimidate shaky politicians, and desecrate our national memorials.

Once again, a counter-umbrella organization of veterans and pro-troop forces will stand vigil to protect our monuments, counter the hate-filled rhetoric of those who are attempting to bring about the downfall of the United States, and shore up those politicians who need a visual show of the true positions of mainstream Americans.

Among the groups working on the DC event are Eagles Landing, Move America Forward, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vets For Freedom, Gathering of Eagles and many others. Each has its own particular niche to fill, and all are committed to showing overwhelming support for our troops and Gen. David Petraeus, architect of the offensive currently underway in Iraq known as the Surge.

Gen. Petraeus is scheduled to report to Congress in mid-September on the progress of the Surge, and the pro-troop forces intend to be there to let him know America is behind him.

There are many efforts underway to blunt the pro-troop movement, with some even questioning its sincerity and the need for another showing like the successful Gathering of Eagles on March 17.

On that day, vets and pro-troop supporters overwhelmingly outnumbered the ANSWER groups, and showed America that we can organize, can speak to the issues, and demonstrate to Congress that there is far more to reckon with in the American political arena than a relative handful of miscreants who are afforded far move coverage and credibility than their numbers and actions deserve.

So, having done it once, why are we going back?

For starters, neither the pro-terrorist, pro-communist, anarchist forces, nor the media, nor Congress ever expected the Gathering of Eagles to be so successful. America's veterans had not united in such large numbers with such passion in recent memory.

That turnout of patriots was a surprise to the anti-democracy forces, and please, don't bore me with this "Peace-loving, anti-war" drivel. I SAW the demonstrators in DC on March 17. I SAW their placards and signs, heard their anti-American rhetoric and speeches. They are NOT peace-loving, anti-war, rank-and-file Americans.

Their group was comprised of Islamo-fascists, communists, socialists and anarchists, none of whom were spouting anything remotely resembling "peace."

If there were any true peace-loving, anti-war demonstrators in that group they were totally hidden by some of the most virulent, filthy, anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-capitalism riffraff imaginable. They came to DC not to demonstrate and make a point using their Constitutional rights to assemble and speak. They came to tear down, destroy, and deface!

Right alongside them, providing all the free public relations capabilities it could muster was the mainstream American media. If the Gathering of Eagles was mentioned at all, by the New York Times for instance, we were lied about, and efforts to correct those lies have been met with stone silence, not that there should be any surprise there.

But our memorials are considered sacred ground, and veterans and our supporters will stand as one to protect them when threatened by spray painters, chisel wielders, and cretins who believe they are making a statement with vats of ink and urine and feces.

Also, among the senior ranks of today's pro-troop forces there is a long-held resentment of the pro-communist forces, conspirators and collaborators, including Jane Fonda, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha and Henry Kissinger who successfully conspired with the mainstream media in the early 70s to cut off all aid to South Vietnam, abandon an ally, and set the stage for the slaughter of millions of innocents.

We have never forgotten the treasonous commentary and political cowardice that caused this calamity, nor the semi-successful effort that continues to this very day to blame it on the military, especially those of us who fought in Vietnam and won every major battle. Military historians know that there has rarely been such a lopsided victory as that won by America and our allies in South Vietnam, and never has such a total victory been so totally sabotaged by cowards and traitors in our government even as we fought to keep Southeast Asia free.

We more than any other group of Americans understand that we can not stand by idly, as America did then, and let a similar calamity occur in the War on Terror and the Battle for Iraq. We understand more so than any other group of Americans, that if we do to the current generation of servicemen and women, what was done to us, it will only be a matter of time before the suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks occur on own land as they now do overseas.

Yes, we are getting on in years. We don't look as we did 40 years ago or more. Our hair is gray or thinning, or gone, and we are no longer the trim and twenty military models that we were then.

But deep in our hearts, the fire still burns. Deep in our hearts we know the cause is just and the battle must be fought.

Deep inside where it matters most there still is strength and determination and pride. Deep inside where it matters most we know that if we sit back today and allow the communists, terrorists and anarchists to rule the streets, as America did a generation ago while we were away at war, then the next generation will grow up in an America devoid of freedom, an America where the light of liberty has been extinguished.

We are going to Washington because we know from hard and bitter experience that America WILL NOT.

Unless we do it, the job won't get done. Unless we do it, anarchists, terrorists and communists will rule the streets, intimidate the politicians, alter the course of history and destroy the world's single greatest hope for the advancement of humanity.

We were the recipients of the sabotage and treachery that marked the US Congress in the Vietnam and Korean eras. We were the recipients of overt acts of hostility, matched only by the more subtle, but equally devastating silence from friends and family who believed without question the lies that were told about our service.

But unlike those who abandoned us then, and turned their backs on us then, we will not abandon this generation of fighters. The men and women in uniform who are striving so valiantly to drive the terrorists into oblivion, the men and women in uniform who are performing so magnificently on the field of battle, will NOT return to an America that resembles the America of the 60s and 70s.

This time an American ally that needs only time and assistance to arrive at the point where it can stand on its own, taking on its own internal matters, and providing for its own external defense, will not be abandoned by spineless traitors and cowards who can blithely shrug off the slaughter of millions, so long as it doesn't directly affect them.

This time, there will be no Silent Majority. This time the majority will roar its support of the General, its support of the troops, its support of the efforts to crush terrorism where it takes root, and its disavowal of those who would destroy our homes, our families and our country.

WE are going to Washington because if we don't, hard and bitter experience has shown that no one else will. WE are going to Washington because there is a job to do, a country to be saved from both external and internal forces that would destroy it, and WE are the people with the drive, initiative, knowledge and ability to take the fight to our enemies where ever they lurk.

We are going to Washington because WE MUST!