Karl Rove is a He's a liar, a cheat, and a thief.

He is also affectionately known to most of us as a hack political strategist. He orchstrated Boy George's re-election by lying about John Kerry's war record and managed to convience the religious right the Bush and Cheney were War Heros.

So how did Bush and Cheney spend the war?

While Kerry was volunteering and fighting in Vietnam, the vice president got five student and marriage deferments that kept him out of the military entirely.

And Bush? Well, his own gentle brush with military service is still clouded with unanswered questions. But inspirational it is not.

Despite low pilot aptitude scores, Bush was jumped ahead of 150 other applicants at the Texas Air National Guard, all but guaranteeing he would never see active combat. And he didn't. His unit included such young Texas luminaries as John Connolly III and Lloyd Bentsen III.

Instead of risking his life against Viet Cong fire, Bush was buzzing the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast, before moving to Alabama to work in a political campaign of a family friend.

So why the attacks? Why didn't they backfire? Why didn't voters grasp the fact that they're being manipulated here?

The sad fact of the matter is that Rove & Co. have had some success attacking the patriotism of genuine war heroes. Just ask John McCain and Max Cleland.

McCain displayed amazing bravery as a POW in Vietnam. Cleland gave two legs and an arm for his country, coming home a triple amputee.

But four years ago, when McCain was gaining ground on Bush in the race for the GOP nomination, Rove launched a vicious assault, all but calling the senator from Arizona a coward and a traitor. Then two years later, when Cleland was in a tough fight for his Georgia Senate seat, the Republican hit squad unleashed a rhetorical howitzer on him, claiming his Senate votes revealed a lack of patriotism.

They beat him. Three limbs, apparently, were not enough.

"You would think a lot of veterans would have been very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard, and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do, criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served,"

I guess I don't understand today's veterans.