Rove calls Gibbs a 'wise-cracking jr high smart mouth'

Sigh. These kids can't play nice.

Karl Rove, the Bush White House "blackberry Machiavelli" tonight slammed White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for talking like "a wise-cracking junior high smart mouth" yesterday when commenting on Vice President Cheney.

Gibbs was commenting on Cheney's comments Sunday during a CNN interview, when he said that Obama's reversal of Bush-era national defense policies have made the U.S. less safe.

"I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal," Gibbs said dryly.

Rove, appearing on Fox News' O'Reilly Show, said he was "surprised" by Gibbs' "tone."

"It would have been better both for Obama and for the country if Mr. Gibbs had, if he had felt neccessary to respond, responded on the merits of the issue, rather than putting such a heavy emphasis on his little sarcastic flip comments. Because these are real issues. These are real issues," Rove said.

Perhaps the more interesting portion of the interview, however, came when O'Reilly probed Rove for why Cheney won't come on his show and said he doesn't think the former vice president likes to engage in debate.

"He feels, I think, most comfortable receiving as tough questions as possible from a journalist and not engaging in a debate, I'll grant you that," Rove said.

Here's the video:

-- Jon Ward, White House reporter, The Washington Times

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