Don't blame Karl Rove
posted by hazmat 06/10/2008 12:51:30 PM EST
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Many republicans are lamenting the state of the republican party, and lay the blame at Karl Rove's feet. But I see little to the none of the self-examination that would be required to purge the daemons of the past 7 years.
The article below suggests that its not just the Iraq policy republicans are unhappy with, but Rove's domestic politics that they see as a significant factor in their misfortunes.
It's easy to blame someone like Rove. But why stop there? Republicans decided collectively that win-at-all-costs was the right way to go. We heard phrases like
"drown the baby in the bathtub"
"the ends justify the means"
"we have convictions, but they don't"
Did I leave anything out?
All throughout the last 15 years we've been subjected to these people and their extreme agenda. The silent 49% minority watched as the media enabled and encouraged them, culminating in abridgement of the constitution, wreckless lawbreaking without consequence, wreckless fiscal policy, and a foreign policy that may well reduce our status as a superpower.
Republicans cheered when Rove gave speeches accusing democrats of "offering therapy" to terrorists. Did you see McCain's pathetic talk last week? They're still cheering the extremist, shrill doublespeak of their politicians. Even now in the current campaign McCain says that people who disagree with his foreign policy proposals want to "surrender". He just doesn't get it.
So don't blame Rove. Blame yourselves, republicans. He only did what you asked of him, and rather well I might add.
Have a look at this article:
Bush confronted Rove’s sins in church
POSTED June 9, 8:41 AM
Fired and brimestone
If you’re going to fire someone, you want to make sure you do it in a place where the now-unemployed can’t make a scene.
You know…a place like, say, a church.
That, according to a new book “Machiavelli’s Shadow” by former Time magazine reporter Paul Alexander, is where President George W. Bush informed trusted advisor Karl Rove in 2007 that his services would no longer be needed at the White House.
“On a Sunday in midsummer, George W. Bush accompanied Karl Rove to the Episcopalian Church Rove sometimes attended,” writes Alexander. “They made their way to the front of the congregation. Then, during their time in the church, Bush gave Rove some stunning news. ‘Karl,’ Bush said, ‘there’s too much heat on you. It’s time for you to go.’”
Maybe Bush knew what he was doing in breaking such bad news in such serene atmosphere: As Alexander documents, Rove has quite the temper.
"He's got a temper and a loud voice and he used it," said Bill Miller, a consultant who worked for and against Rove in Texas. "He's known for getting hot. There are buttons people know about. Losing and getting screwed with will [upset] him in a hurry."
CQ's Craig Crawford recalls this moment from 1999, when Crawford was editing National Journal's Hotline: "I thought Bush was called Bush Junior," Crawford told Alexander. "So, at Hotline, because we needed a device in our headlines to delineate him from Bush Senior, we were just calling him Bush Junior. Well, one day I picked up the phone and there was this person screaming at me on the other end. It was just nonstep yelling. It was Karl Rove and I mean he tore my head off over our calling Bush Bush Junior."
"Machiavelli's Shadow" doesn't portray Rove in a favorable light and Alexander includes plenty of interviews with GOP notables unsatisfied with Rove's influence during the Bush administration.
"Every Republican I know looks at the Bush administration as a total failure," said Matt Towery, chairman of Newt Gingrich's political organization.
“To do what he did politically to us is unforgivable," Rep. Tom Tancredo told Alexander. "It will take generations to recover. I don't know how long; maybe never."
"I think the legacy is that Karl Rove will be a name that'll be used for a long, long time as an example of how not to do it," said long-time GOP strategist Ed Rollins.
