September 15, 2010

A few thoughts on Karl Rove

In the wake of the DE primary election, Karl Rove came out blasting O'Donnell. For some reason, this surprised and infuriated a lot of people.  These folks need to step back and rethink their previous adulation of Rove.

Karl Rove is an election tactician.  Period.  He's not a conservative.  He's not a long-term strategist.  He's only a Republican by whatever accident of fate put him in the party.  He'd be just as comfortable doing his thing for the Dems, as he has zero ideological basis to his actions.

To him, nominating O'Donnell over Castle is the height of stupidity, as you go from a likely win to a likely loss.  The concept that, if the Republican is going to vote like a Dem, it would be better to have a Dem in the seat, is completely foreign to him.  The idea that ideology matters simply does not compute in Rove's brain.

And all this is fine, if Rove has bosses that take ideology and strategy into consideration, and keep their pet tactician on an extremely short leash.  The problem is, as the GOP 'leadership' has become about maintaining their personal power and political perks at all costs, Rove has become the defacto face of the GOP establishment.

As can be seen from the time Rove came to prominence, having him as a party leader has been a complete disaster.  Sure, he won a few tight elections -- there's no doubt he is an excellent tactician.  However, the cost to win those elections in terms of sacrifice of principle and sound governance has proven to be far too high.  This is why there is a huge rebellion against the GOP establishment.  In the attempt to keep any power they can, the GOP leaders have triangulated themselves into oblivion, and now stand for precisely nothing.

It would be nice if someone in a GOP leadership position would take Rove aside and tell him that he'll be called upon when needed to manage a tight election with a desirable candidate, but otherwise he can piss off.  This won't happen, of course, as Rove is far too full of himself at this point, and the GOP leadership simply isn't that smart.

So, all this fury at Rove for, well, being Karl Rove, is a bit perplexing.  He'll end up being marginalized, which is what should have happened to him ages ago.  When your pet tactician goes rabid and gets off his leash, the best thing to do is put him down.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 11:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Yup. He wasn't Bush' campaign dude for nothing.
He's a less slimy Dick Morris.


Posted by: Veeshir at September 15, 2010 12:59 PM (Q/T1w)

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