Karl Rove, speaking on The O'Reilly Factor:

ROVE: The vast majority of the American people believe there is freedom of religion in our Constitution and that right of freedom of expression would be best exercised by not building it here. Look, in that same first amendment there’s a right to freedom of speech. Who believes that skinheads should show up at a Black sorority convention and scream bigoted remarks? Who believes there’s a right of freedom of assembly. Who believes Neo-Nazis should show up at the B’nai B’rith hotel and have their meeting in the next meeting room? There are rights everyone has that we think it’d be prudent to not exercise them at certain times.

If Karl Rove truly believes that American Muslims are just like neo-Nazis and skinheads, then perhaps he can explain why President Bush asked an imam to lead the post-9/11 service at the National Cathedral -- and why just a few days later, President Bush proudly accepted a Koran from the same imam while proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace.

More likely, Rove doesn't believe that American Muslims are as bad as neo-Nazis. Instead, he's exploiting anti-Muslim bigotry for partisan political gain. And there's a name for that kind of behavior: moral cowardice.