Rove still has advice to dish

July 29, 2007

Bob Novak reports that Karl Rove believes he knows how to get the GOP back on solid ground.

Karl Rove, President Bush’s political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party’s defeat in the 2006 elections.

Rove’s clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture of Washington. Specifically, Republican candidates are urged to make clear they have no connection with disgraced congressmen such as Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley.

In effect, Rove was rebutting the complaint inside the party that George W. Bush is responsible for Republican miseries by invading Iraq.

You’ll remember, of course, that this is the same Rove who assured Republican candidates in 2006 that Dems couldn’t possibly win back both chambers of Congress. When pushed before the elections about the polls favoring Dems, Rove told NPR that he’d found a secret math that gives him insights that mere mortals can’t comprehend.

ROVE: I’m looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don’t know if we’re entitled to a different math but your…

ROVE: I said THE math.

About a month ago, (subscription-only) Roll Call had an item on whether Rove “still holds the same stature among Republicans that he once enjoyed.” The article suggested that his star has fallen. As Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) put it, “Obviously, I’m not a fan.”

And yet, Rove’s still at it, telling ’08 candidates not to worry too much about all of that unpleasantness in Iraq. I’m not sure why the GOP candidates would listen to Rove’s advice, but if Dems are really lucky, the myth of Rove’s genius will lead Republicans to misread the landscape and take Turd Blossom’s advice.

Yeah, Rove is a real political genius – He took a President with an approval rating of 90% and managed to drive it all the way down to the mid 20’s. Why anyone Repub would even take the time to listen to this guy is beyond me – Except for the MSM, who are still in awe of the fact that he was able to take the Republican’t son of a former Senator and President and get him elected – in TEXAS! – Astounding!

  • Rove needs new fodder to land on in ’08; if he crashes and burns, he’ll be lucky to get a co-host gig with the shrill little man-cub (O’Reilly) at the artificial news network (foxnoise)….

  • Karl Rove, President Bush’s political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party’s defeat in the 2006 elections.

    Jeebus, I have to wonder if any of the Republican Reps had the balls to ask about Rove’s ex-secretary, Ms. Susan Ralston and her Abramoff buffer resignation for Karl Rove???

    If the GOP really take Roves advice, they have to distance themselves from Bush, Cheney and Rove’s very noticable corruption.

    But that ain’t what the GOP is doing…nope.

    MediaMatters – Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) that advises Republicans to attack congressional Democrats for their supposed lack of legislative accomplishments. In fact, Republicans have blocked Senate action at an unprecedented rate — apparently putting into action a strategy that Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) described as “obstructionist.”>

    Republicans have become the Party of SPIN and LIE, because they have to lie to get re-elected these days, via falsify voter scams, make up falsify claims against Dems in office, shown on Media camera to have disagreements with Gonzales but help Bush protect him when they think voters aren’t looking. If the DNC Chair, Howard Dean went to Arizona, they could get rid of both McCain and Kyl for good with just a little bit of work in the state. This ain’t your father’s conservative party – there is NOTHING ethical about the GOP today.

  • Maybe Rove knows Bush will have to announce a drawdown of troops in Iraq after the surge fails in order to head off the destruction of the Army and revive dwindling Repub electoral prospects. Bush might declare the surge a success despite the evidence and decree half our troops will be home by next summer. Who’s gonna argue? Odierno made some noises along those lines the other day.

  • BTW go to Townhall where wingnuts are chiming in on the Novak article and the comments sound about the same as they do here.
    They hate Rove too. At least today they do.

  • ROVE: I said THE math.

    Whenever I have a problem with math, I always go looking for a college dropout who majored in political science.

  • I agree; I devoutly hope the Republican party puts all its money on Rove. His “math” depended on suppression of information about the Republicans he didn’t want the public knowing, and general manipulation of the media. That’s not as easy now as it was, since the media is comprised of bootlickers who smell Republican defeat. However, Rove’s huge ego makes it impossible for him to see anything but victory.

    It’s not enough for me that they lose – I want to see the Republicans driven so far from power that they can’t remember what it smells like.

  • “Distance yourselves from yourselves.” Yeah, that’ll work.

    Bwahahahahahaha!

  • Rove really has lost it. In fact I hope that all Rethugs running for office in 2008 take Roves advice and promise the people that if they are elected they will provide a seamless Bush / Cheney style of governing into the future. I can’t think of a better way to get elected than to jump on that Bush / Cheney incompetence platform that has worked so well for them since 2003.

  • Until we have public financing of elections, I suspect we will be subjected to the toxic symbiosis of the MSM and those political consultants who have managed to grab the big brass ring or who happen to be young accolytes of those who have done so. I imagine it is relatively cheap for cable news to keep these boys and girls in the stable as consultants. One party gets cheap conventional wisdom content and the other gets to have his/her street cred burnished to a high Beltway luster. Can you say James Carville? Paul Begala? Bob Schrum? David Gergen? These folks are trotted out with regularity as if they actually have something prescient or relevant or interesting to say. How often do you feel edified after listening to them? I’m sure they make great sources for “reporters,” too. Hell, one probably does not even have to leave the buffet line to grab a few great pearls of wisdom from these swine.

    Karl Rove is simply the latest model in a long line of political “Masters” to whom a lazy press looks for quotatable quotes. And politicians who have to gain buzz to raise money have to give them their “due” as well, i.e., keep hiring them for the big bucks that campaign contributions make possible. Oh, and no doubt these Political Brains then stroke the media outlets with ad placements. Seems like nice work if you can get it. Is it any wonder that the $$ spent to get elected keep spiraling and the happy little incest party enriches all who play that game? The interesting thing about Rove is that he plays really dirty and his style of politics now seems to set the standard for the Kool Kidz. Unethical behavior? No! That’s just (excuse the pun) hardball politics. Dolts like Chris Matthews cannot get enough of tactics that make their eyes widen with the thrill of yet another “taboo” fallen. OOOOOhhh that is so bad, but the opposition party is a bunch of wussies for expected someone to play by the “old” rules. Yeah, that’s right, I’m feeling cynical today.

  • There aren’t many instances where one can reasonably defend Rove, but it’s hard to believe the Foley scandal wasn’t a factor in the loss of Congress. The scandal broke in late September 2006 and details continued to emerge at least through mid October. The nature and hypocrisy of Foley’s offenses, Hassert’s bumbling attempts to deny prior knowledge and the manner in which Republican’s who knew swept it under the rug combined to reinforce the “culture of corruption” label Dems had been promoting. More importantly, perhaps, was that these were all offenses that the public could understand — nothing wonkinsh about them.

    I’m not going to bother looking up polls in the various races to prove Rove’s point, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that corruption was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Remember how close many of those races were? And speculation about the Senate flipping didn’t really become serious until shortly before we went to the polls.

    That was then. Since the 06 elections, the war has become much more of a liability and denying that with regard to 08 is delusional.

    All that aside, I loved this line: “Rove’s clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture of Washington.” I assume by that Rove means the culture REPUBLICANS CREATED. Good luck.

  • Wonderful World (with apologies to Sam Cooke)

    Didn’t know much about honesty
    Didn’t know much reality
    Didn’t learn much from an ethics book
    Didn’t care much about the laws I broke

    But I do know that I stole two (elections)
    And I know that if I tell you to
    What a wonderful Reich this would be

    Don’t know much about addition
    Don’t know the Constitution
    Don’t know much about character
    Don’t know what the truth is for

    But I know that one and one IS four
    And if this one could screw with you (Dems)
    What a wonderful Reich this would be

    now I don’t claim to be a manipulator
    But I’m trying to be
    for Maybe my being a maninpulator, baby
    I can rig elections for thee

    Didn’t know much about honesty
    Didn’t know much reality
    Didn’t learn much from an ethics book
    Didn’t care much about the laws I broke

    But I do know that I stole two (elections)
    And I know that if I tell you to
    What a wonderful Reich this would be

    (tralalala)

    But I do know that I stole two (elections)
    And I know that if I tell you to
    What a wonderful Reich this would be

  • Rove may be smarter than he appears, if you consider he wants what’s best for him, not the Party. What does everyone in Bush’s White House care about? Sneaking out of office with troops in Iraq, and surviving the various legal scandals. At the very least, they need enough right-wing cultists providing cover for the blanket pardon he issues to his entire administration, so Rove and Cheney can retire and hit the speaking tour, preaching about how the next President is undoing all their good work.

  • Rumor has it that Rove is doing his THE math on the new Diebold calculators evidenced to give the results he is seeking. It just took one election to work the bugs out on how to use the new Diebold, “THE math” machines.

    Is Rove telling them to ignore all the allegations of corruption against the present administration which make Cunningham and Foley look like their blood brothers?
    Seems Rove is carrying on the banner of hypocrisy. He really means to say stay clear of those “convicted” of corruption, as in just don’t get caught. What planet has he been on? This administration is perceived as the most corrupt WH yet and yes, corruption in congress was the #2 issue of the ’06 elections, right after the Iraq war/occupation.
    This administration has failed miserably on both issues and continues to fail, driving the republican representatives who still support them right out of their elected seats. This administration ignores the will of the majority of Americans on Iraq and Rove ignores it as being a dominate issue of the ’08 elections. Go figure. It makes me paranoid as if Rove knows some secret that hasn’t happened yet which will change Iraq’s dominate role. Hmmm.
    As far as corruption… in this administration, Rove is doing everything he can to avoid any oversight of his activities staying one step ahead of the subpoena’s contempt charges… so far. His so called “political genius” has come back to haunt him for the gutter politics he is guilty of playing. Corruption to Rove is just a card he carries in his back pocket which he uses to pay accounts due. Underhanded back door politics is not genius nor does it conjure up respect doing what others consider unethical.

    If republicans want to get elected they should stop listening to those who have all but destroyed their party and our democracy but just haven’t been brought down for it yet.. Rove should be offering these 2008 republican House candidates his sincerest apologies for destroying their chances to be elected or reelected should they continue to support the Administration he helped get appointed by the Supreme Court.

    Rove…the trickster should go straight to jail for constitutional abuse and trying to politicize not just the DoJ but all of government in his illegal attempt to bring about single party rule, thereby destroying our democracy in contrast to the will of the majority of the American people.

    Perhaps he will find a way to remain unaccountable, making himself above the rule of law because he has no integrity, but his so called “genius” will forever be doing the “perp” walk.

  • Rove told NPR that he’d found a secret math that gives him insights that mere mortals can’t comprehend.

    You mean he broke it out of the insane asylum?!? I hope nobody tells his friends, Napoleon Bonaparte and Joan of Arc. They’ll never forgive him, once they stop drooling long enough to hear the bad news!

  • I’m not sure how indicative individual prima donnas like Trent Lott are of things, CB. If you’re basing this on your insider-experience and sense of things, though, then I have faith in your opinion. But it just seems to me that three or four guys can be pissed at Karl, while more broadly, he’s just a little disfavored relative to in the past.

  • Rove is doing his THE math on the new Diebold calculators

    The poll numbers like they are, it would be strange indeed to win an election if all your co-workers don’t like this administration, your neighbors and even the lady standing beside you at the check out in the grocery store doesn’t like this administration either and you live in a semi conservative state – it would be stange indeed to see Republicans winning elections.

    But that said, this adminstration, with intend to do so – was politically stacking the DOJ for purely political reasons – with Bush harping on the fact that there was nothing wrong with do that, that Gonzales did nothing wrong and the DOJ serves at his pleasure. And if Bush wants to corrupt the DOJ that is his pleasure. And clearly if it is Bush’s pleasure to corrupt DoJ, and Gonzales clearly did that for Bush. Than fixing those diebold machines at Bush’s pleasure is a no-brainer for this administration either. Bush has shown the criminal capacity to do anything. Bush doesn’t think Republicans have a problem other-throwing democacy and certainly todays Republicans are just like Bush. It seems very strange to me that Republicans don’t care what voters think – they care only what Bush thinks. As if Bush and Cheney is the ONLY constituency that the GOP need to worry about, odd huh?

    If you care about your vote, if care about being free – better demand a paper ballot – and that it be counted too.

  • Republicans have their own science. Why shouldn’t they have their own math?

    It fits together really well. Just as their science does not accurately describe the real world, their math does not accurately predict election results.

  • If you care about your vote, if care about being free – better demand a paper ballot – and that it be counted too.

    Comment by Me_again

    You can request an absentee ballot. It is paper and it will be counted.

  • The Open Secrets 2006 Election Analysis (link below) agreed with Karl Rove:

    “Officeholders tied to Washington scandals, however, lost in greater number Tuesday. In national exit polls, voters said corruption and ethics in government were extremely important factors in their vote, outranking (by a small margin) terrorism, the economy, Iraq and illegal immigration.”

    The Dems need to get busy and uncover more GOP corruption.

    Kick Gonzales out of office and maybe some of the stalled investigations will get moving. Abramoff’s been talking for more than a year. The Weldon grand jury was convened in May 2006.

  • memekiller, presidential pardons won’t prevent Bush and Cheney from being handed over to The Hague for war crimes (i.e. – the deaths of 50,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians).

  • …genius my ass!!! It is said and believed that rove is bush’s brains!!! … SOME FUCKING BRAINS!!
    Has anyone taken a look at bush … again, some fucking brains!!
    If I was rove I’d sue for libel all of those that call me/compare me to such a retard … then again maybe genius had/has nothing to do with rove .. a simple case of the mathematical ‘perfect storm’ to get a congress and a SC all on the same page … did not even take that much coordination … just a little thieving/cheating on the side at the right places and voila!
    We have an asshole in the oval office .. screwing up the world in a way that the world now sees/realizes that it was/is being screwed.

    Our conservative assholes are not trying to leave town in the middle of the night and not waking up the neighbors .. fuck that shit … those religious assholes are all going on a very ‘long’ trip and it is not worth bothering with leaving the place clean … falwell has not returned yet to tell them exactly when they ‘is’ going but …. sooooooon!

    Remember when they said the clintons savaged the WH when they left it … supposedly bill and his whore had not cleaned up all the chicken shit and pigs slop entirely … what did they expect our 2 classless hillbillies to do?

  • Rove’s “new math” in conjunction with the latest revelations of “data mining” make me very nervous. What if Rove had access to the data mining information? Is that what caused the DOJ and FBI higher-ups to have a near breakdown?

  • Rove is the most successful political strategist alive. He got the village idiot elected president twice.

    Discount him at your peril.

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