President George W. Bush has said he wants to change the tone in Washington.

Well, he can start right now by apologizing for the outrageous remarks to the Conservative Party of New York last week by Karl Rove, who implied that liberals -- meaning Democrats -- took a softer approach to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York than did his fellow conservatives.

In his divisive speech, Rove said that the "most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security."

"Conservatives," he continued, "saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

"In the wake of the terrorist attacks," he said, "conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States against the Taliban" while liberals supported a MoveOn.org petition "imploring the powers that be to use moderation and restraint in responding to the terrorist attacks against the United States."

In an angry response on the House floor Monday, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. urged Bush to "repudiate the destructive, dishonest assault" on liberals by Rove.

"Karl Rove's vicious attack on people who have dared to disagree with the Bush administration policies consists primarily of conscious, deliberate lies," Frank said.

"(Rove's) assertion that 'liberals' responded inadequately to the mass murders of September 11, 2001, is not only false, he knows it to be false," the congressman added.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded by saying that Bush sees "no reason" for an apology.

Rove's remarks did not quite descend to the branding of liberals as "appeasers" but he certainly tried to convey the impression that "conservatives" were the real patriots in the aftermath of the national catastrophe.

Rove -- who used to operate behind the scenes with his political innuendos -- has broken his own White House cover and gone public as a political hatchet man. It appears that he is tired of hiding his light under a bushel and wants the public recognition due him for his success in masterminding Bush's re-election campaign.

After the election, the president promoted Rove to deputy chief of staff, moving him out of the shadows.

In his remarks, Rove charged that conservatives wanted to unleash the full might of the U.S. military against the Taliban in Afghanistan, while he scoffed at liberals who wanted to "use moderation and restraint in responding to the terrorist attacks against the United States."

"Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: We will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: We must understand our enemies," Rove said.

Rove obviously is unaware of the old axiom: "Know thy enemy."

This obvious lack of understanding may explain why Washington and U.S. commanders in Iraq have been taken by surprise at the strength of the growing insurgency, more than a year after Bush had declared: "Mission accomplished."

For one thing, the Pentagon and the White House listened to the self-serving Iraqi defectors and the neo-consevatives advisers, who said the invasion would be a cakewalk.

Rove said that the conservatives "see the United States as a great nation engaged in a noble cause; liberals see the United States and they see ... Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags and the killing fields of Cambodia."

That was a slam at Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who has apologized for the misinterpretation of his remarks on the treatment of prisoners of war at Guantanamo. His remarks were based on an FBI report about conditions at the prison there.

Rove's attacks are off the wall. Could it be his macho approach is designed to distract from the war that is going badly?

McClellan told reporters that Rove was speaking to a political organization and wanted to stress the "different philosophies when it comes to winning the war on terrorism."

Democrats and Republicans alike voted wholeheartedly for the attack on Afghanistan in October 2001, mainly to go after al-Qaida leader Osmana bin Laden, who is still at large.

McClellan said that the president "has worked to elevate the discourse in this town."

Not that you could notice.

(Helen Thomas can be reached at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com).

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