See You at the Crossroads
Karl Rove -- the anti-tea partier?
The landscape has changed, with Mr. Rove at times clashing with potent new Tea Party-style activists, some of whom view him as a face of the old party establishment they want to upend.
Already a prominent presence as an analyst on Fox News Channel and a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rove is also playing a leading role in building [political action groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS] what amounts to a shadow Republican Party, a network of donors and operatives that is among the most aggressive in the Republican effort to capture control of the House and the Senate.
Well, first, let me say: let a thousand shadows bloom. Anyone making up for Michael Steele is probably doing something right. There's a reason why "there's no money" going to the RNC, as Mary Cheney puts it. But I confess I'm even more sympathetic to folks on the right who are making up for Karl Rove.
Richard Viguerie, a longtime conservative strategist who has allied with Tea Party activists, said, “We’re all on the same page until the polls close Nov. 2.”
But, referring to Mr. Rove and Mr. Gillespie as part of the “ruling class,” he added, “Then a massive, almost historic battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party begins.”
I'd like for that to be an exaggeration -- I have a hat, a shirt, and a few bumper stickers reading No Purges -- but it's true: given no other choice, I'd rather be governed by someone plucked at random from the Tea Party rolls than be ruled by Karl Rove. The trouble with Massive Historic Battles, in this case, is that they raise the stakes so high, and polarize alternatives so powerfully, that they push well-intentioned people to cast their last resorts as dreams come true. Just as I'd expect someone to look around for other options when given the choice between ME and KARL ROVE, I'd expect Rove and Company to understand that their moment at the helm is good and gone and gone for good -- and, perhaps even more importantly, to understand why.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
I never saw Rove as a policy guy. He represents one or more candidates, and his policy is their policy. He's a numbers guy, he's a strategy guy. His job is keeping the approval/disapproval numbers within bounds, and preparing for the next election. If he doesn't like Republican candidates, it's probably because he doesn't see how they can win.
May '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Pragmatically speaking, pre-November tension between Rove and "The Wave" feeds the wave, since Bush/Cheney/Rove-hating independents will be more inclined to get with the program.
Tomorrow will sort itself out.
Aug '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Rove was here with Beck this summer for a Saturday event. There was a Friday pre-event at the Capital Building billed as a "Tea Party." Every previous Tea Party event in this city drew perhaps--what--I think 5,000 is a realistic estimate. Although there were, no doubt, numerous factors that came into play--I could not help but notice that the banner at the bottom of the Capital steps, picturing Rove and Beck, faced a sparse crowd of no more than two hundred, generously estimated. I defended President Bush and Rove through Mr. Bush's re-election in 2004, at great personal cost to myself. Goodbye Mr. Rove. You did some good. Take some pride in that. America is moving on.
Edited on September 26, 2010 at 5:48pmJul '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Why are all campaign managers the guys that couldn't be. They seem to have a alter ego/reality that they live through with the guy they are supporting. Look at James carville...put him back into the chamber at area 51! But he lived through Clinton who got all the chics. Rove is the same way. I saw him in a cowboy hat with Bush and Bush was all cool looking and Rove...not so much. Now we have Axelrod, he probably listens to rap music and secretly wishes he was as cool as B. Who is going to be Palin's??? Some big chic with warts or something?
Sep '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
I have this advice for Karl Rove. GO HOME and SHUT UP!! or, perhaps, SHUT UP and GO HOME!! We don't CARE.
May '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
While The Dude may Abide, he neglects that Pat Caddell is way cooler than Jimmy Carter. He's Chuck Norris cool.
And honestly, who wants to be a politican? Nobody sane. Much better to have the power without the profile. Though this simple explanation is belied by the fact that most of them end up on teevee.
Jun '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
You misunderstand Rove's new job description. Cheerleading is not on the list anymore. What's left is analyzing polls and making predictions. He may turn out to be wrong, he might miss some intangible measure of the public, but it won't be for lack of trying.
Aug '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
The churning and conflict is inevitable, and healthy; a clash between the moneyed and cynical Country Club R's and the True Patriots who understand to the core of their soul what America really is and what it means. The Country Clubbers have to be marginalized or they'll corrupt us.
Rove is the guy in the engine room who just loves the machine and wants to keep it running.
I think Dick Morris - as a reformed and repentant Statist - is more effective and influential.
Jul '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
American elections are the best shows on earth!
And face it, Rove put on a tantrum. Either he counts and harks back to McKinley, or he gets all red in the face and blows up. But you need him, he knows how to count. But he should NOT be on TV!!
Jun '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
heathermc: American elections are the best shows on earth!
And face it, Rove put on a tantrum. Either he counts and harks back to McKinley, or he gets all red in the face and blows up. But you need him, he knows how to count. But he should NOT be on TV!! · Sep 26 at 11:39am
Karl has a paid gig on Fox as an analyst. A guy's got to make a living. He would be cheating his employer if he gave less than his true opinion and a boring talking head if he didn't have the passion of his convictions. I think he would probably like to be down in the trenches running a big profile, big budget campaign but who wants to be the candidate to take on Karl and his built-in baggage? I went heart, not head, in the O'Donnell primary -- Karl's analysis was painful to hear, not because he was wrong, but because I suspected I might be.
Jun '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Jul '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Jimmy Carter??? My insane redneck uncle who lives in the woods is (...no, Carville is not my uncle) is cooler then Jimmy, in the words of Gob Bluth..."Come on"
May '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Yet Rove has been swinging a sizable stick for other Tea Party-approved candidates, such as Sharron Angle in Nevada. I'm pretty sure he's done the same for Joe Miller, Rand Paul, Roy Blunt, Ken Buck, and Marco Rubio.
So yeah, he's all Captain Establishment, right? Or could it be that he gave a horrible candidate a well-deserve smackdown while he continues to back halfway solid candidates (*coughAnglecough*) and other very good ones.
Sep '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
I don't disagree with you Jimmy, but, that smack-down, deserved or not, is not helpful when given immediately after a primary win. Rove is definitely a member of the fall-in-line-for-the-sake-of-unity crowd and he didn't. That is what is irksome. If she loses the general, that is the time for rebukes.
May '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
Hmm. And how did that work out for him? Fox is a business. If viewers hate him, we'll stop hearing from him. Soon enough he'll be groveling for a spot on Morning Joe.
May '10
Re: See You at the Crossroads
This is the first time I have agreed 100% with Jimmie.
And I must part company almost 100% with James, because bringing Viguerie into a conversation opposing Rove as the old school political guy ought to get James tossed out of Georgetown.
And Dick Morris as the principled man of the Right?
Ron Radosh is correct in explaining why the Senate is a hopeless quest. I fear that the center-right brand is going to need to be rebuilt after all the purists have purged everyone less than two sigma right from the electorate's mean out of the party.
When the Republicans have become the right's mirror image of the Daily Kos wackos on the left, we'll see how many votes there are to even slow down the leftward lurch.