A Republican strategist is defending Hilary Rosen following her controversial comment that Ann Romney has "never worked a day in her life."

About 24 hours after Rosen made the comment, drawing the rebuke of Democrats and Republicans alike, Bay Buchanan has come to her rescue. Rosen has since apologized for the comment.

"In this business that we are in, this awful rotten business of politics, there's no reason why you can't understand that we, being humans, are going to make mistakes sometimes -- and you distance yourself from the words," Buchanan said Thursday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

But, she added, "You don't distance yourself from the person."

Rosen made the comment Wednesday on the program.

"What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, 'Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that's what I'm hearing,' " Rosen said. " Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life."

The comment drew criticism from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, as well as high profile political operatives.

Romney responded to the comment on Wednesday, tweeting, "I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work."

In a Thursday appearance on Fox News, she said, "We have to respect women in all those choices that they made."

Obama said "there is no tougher job than being a mom," and, "anybody who would argue otherwise, I think, probably, needs to rethink their statement." Biden said Rosen had "absolutely" overstepped, and called the language "outrageous" in an interview on MSNBC.

Republicans, including Romney advisers, sought to tie Rosen to the Democratic National Committee, Obama and the White House. They pointed to her name in White House visitor logs.

But Buchanan, who is also an adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, said Democrats went too far.

"Hilary has been enormously loyal and committed to this president, and to have them, to spend a day just trying to distance themselves, say she's not an adviser, she's not this," Buchanan said. "That is unacceptable to me. She has been too good to them, for them to treat her this way."

Rosen said she appreciated Buchanan's comments, and suggested political rhetoric needed to be dialed down.

"I think that that's going to be our challenge over the next six or seven months, is to not do this to each other and to say, you know what, I know that person, I know that they didn't mean that," she said. "Or maybe they did mean it and they need to say that they -- back it up with facts."

Having apologized for the Wednesday comments, Buchanan suggested she was ready to move on.

"Tomorrow we're all going to wake up and I'm going to stay off TV," she said.