The Fall of Karl Rove
The continued relevance of Karl Rove, perhaps ending, has mystified me since 2006.
Rough days, reports Politico:
“He’s got a donor backlash and he’s got an activists backlash,” said one prominent Republican donor. Several people who cut big checks to Crossroads feel burned, this person said, adding some believe Rove is letting his group off too easy with his insistence that the problem last year was bad candidates.
“This idea that he’s the curator” of the Republican Party has taken a beating, said the donor. Further, the donor said — echoing sentiments made by others — the Times story about the Conservative Victory Project made both Crossroads and Rove a focus, as opposed to the process of picking candidates. And it set CVP up in direct opposition to another major conservative outside group, Club for Growth, that has been able to tout electoral successes.
Rove's power in the GOP has confused me since at least 2006. It was then that he infamously said to NPR's Robert Siegel: "You're entitled to your math. I'm entitled to THE math." Rove's math, of course, was proved horribly wrong on election day. I don't know why he was taken seriously after that.
Then Bush left office at 22 percent. And here we are five years later living through what should have happened in 2009. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as Johnny Rotten said (undeservedly in his case) of Elvis, but are there any larger consequences to Rove's fall?
He did really try to woo the Latinos, so the R's could probably use his input on that point. And he's undoubtedly right in taking on the Tea Party people. That should help him. "Rove--undoubtedly right!" --M. Tomasky. In other words, as tragic as his political "wisdom" has been for the country--war, debt, division, economic calamity, Katrina, all on his watch--it can probably only get worse given today's GOP.