Double Standards Anyone?

Lets see if I understand this. Howard Dean specifically calls out Republicans and proceeds to go on about how they're the evil party. For many Dem's this was okay while the Repub's wanted an apology. Karl Rove mentions liberals, he doesn't use party names, and the Dem's get up in arms about wanting an apology and now the Repub's are saying his comments were okay. So it's okay for Dean to label Republicans specifically as bad but it's not okay for Rove to say liberals? And last I checked, given the demonization of the word liberal by the right, most Dem's had tried to distance themselves from this word so why the anger at Rove's comments? Unless of course they hit a little too close to home.