Read a few of my posts filed under “government” and you’ll find out exactly what I think of Karl Rove. Everyone from Paul Krugman to kuro5hin proclaim loudly that Bush’s brain has got to go. Clearly, this is a justified call. However:
Does anyone think that the sacking of Rove will cause the man to disappear quietly into the wilds of Texas whence he came? Every major corporation lets key employees go after an oops or at retirement, but keeps them on the payroll unofficially or as self-employed contractors. Don’t kid yourself — Karl’s not roving anywhere, especially not when his finger is firmly affixed to the presidential On/Off/Annoying switch.
That’s a very valid point, but there is a bunch of People who’d feel happy that he doesn’t have have an address in DC.
Clearly, this is a justified call.
Not so clear to me.. can you help me see the clarity in such a call?
Oh, and please no links to articles full of assertions by academics writing about topics that are not their area of expertise.
What is it that makes nominally normal people break out at this poor man? The fact that he disagrees with your opinions? Or that he convinces others to see his point of view ? Or that he does this while not being pretty or articulate or any of the other things that make one in-group in US High ?
Rove is probably the most brilliant political strategist in the US today. Bill Clinton comes close.. but then, Clinton does it by being a hypocrite, and Rove does it with pure analysis and his intimate knowledge of knowing what it means to be ‘American’.
To continue the corporate analogy.. if Clinton is the Ken Lay of US politics.. Rove is Jack Welch. One of them built up a Potemkin party as a prophylactic while indulging his appetites.. the other will leave a stunningly strong edifice, until lesser minds f**k it up.
If Clinton was to be impeached for lying under oath that he didn’t have sex with Monica Lewinsky (a strong request by the Republicans, to put it mildly), why shouldn’t Rove get kicked out when the president himself promised to fire anyone responsible for leaking Plame/Wilson’s name? Rove would have organized a similar ouster had this been a Democrat’s handiwork.
I am just severely disappointed that the Teflon Don, Karl Rove, whom I DO consider to be quite smart, got himself in this mess.
All politicians are in it for the power and money, the weak Democrats included. But, to do it with the severe and open disregard for the American people (in terms of the deficit, the marriage of church and state, this absolute bullshit war in Iraq that has done nothing but recruit more jihadists to an even more reprehensible cause) is something only the modern-day version of the Republicans are capable of. The increasing size of government under the Bush administration (and Rove’s strategy) has done nothing to restore my faith in the Republican party as the true keepers of the American way.
If Rove were really smart, he would have run for president himself, instead of having to coach the joke that is George W. Bush. Oh, and Ken Lay didn’t have Clinton’s ear, but Bush’s.
I don’t have a dog in this Plame fight, so my attention has wandered. But my understanding is that *Novak* told *Rove* that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent. So how did Rove leak anything? In any case, V. Plame had not been undercover for over a year at the time her name was written in the column.
I doubt anyone knows what the end-game looks like, so maybe I’ll wait and see. Obituaries for Rove’s political career are premature. Rove will never be president because in the age of televised campaigns, people chose with their libidos rather than their brains. He’s better off being kingmaker than king.
Rove now is developing a cadre of his clones. Once each week for one hour, he holds a teleconference for young political strategists where he leads them through discussions, elicits learnings and hands out wisdom. Unfortunately it’s strictly by invitation and I can’t even listen in unless I fly to where my contact lives on the other coast.
Can you be a little more specific about which budget you’re talking about? Fiscal deficit? Trade deficit? In case of the first, it’s hardly in any President’s hand. In case of the second.. why would that be a cause for concern?
Ken Lay was a bipartisan donor, gave money to both parties. It was Lay’s chief economic adviser who was a Clinton partisan.. heard of Paul Krugman ?
We are losing American money in a war that I don’t see as going anywhere. Forget deficits for a minute, can you tell me convincingly that I am getting my money’s worth and that my military is gaining in strength as a result of what’s going on in Iraq? What is going on in Iraq? If this is part of Rove’s brilliant strategy, what gives?
“Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.”
I doubt if Rove is involved in making decisions about foreign policy. I don’t know for sure.. but I’m guessing he is the domestic political adviser. Maybe he advises Bush on *framing* the WOT in a particular way, as a wordsmith..
If you want accountability for the WOT, that would be the Bush->Cheney->Rice->Rumsfeld->Neocons branch to ask.