Karl Rove pranced onto Fox ‘news’ to announce his displeasure [with the Chrysler Superbowl ad], saying that the ad was ‘a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.’ The man who helped demonize a legless Vietnam vet said he was ‘offended.’

What this reaction says is something deeper. See, Clint Eastwood, who voted for John McCain and opposed the bank and car bailouts, thinks the whole controversy is bullshit. He rewrote the script, and he’s donating his pay to charity. What Rove and the rest of the right’s negative reaction really means is that they are divorced from the nation as a whole. In the ad, Eastwood says that, during tough times, ‘we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one.’ We acted, in essence, like Americans.

Conservatives are saying that it’s offensive to expect them to do so. And if Dirty Harry wants to wallow around with the dirty hippies, then fuck him, too.