Days prior to the attack, Republicans were beginning to panic amid signs that the economy is doing worse, not better, since President George W. Bush signed his big tax cut.

Days prior to the attack, Republicans were beginning to panic amid signs that the economy is doing worse, not better, since President George W. Bush signed his big tax cut. At a private dinner at Washington's Metropolitan Club, senior Bush adviser Karl Rove was subjected to what The New York Times calls an "unvarnished critique" of the president's style and strategy on economic issues by a gathering of top GOP leaders. The group including former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, former Reagan Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein, consultant Charles Black, pollster Linda DiVall, and former congressmen Bill Paxton and Vin Weber. So what was the "new" idea the group pushed on Rove? More tax cuts, specifically of the capital gains tax.