WP: Rove Remains Steadfast in the Face of Criticism

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101103.html

For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usual unflappable mood. He roamed around his windowless West Wing office decorated with four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copies of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" into his bag and signing the last paperwork of the day.

The Architect, as President Bush once called him, has a theory for why the building fell down. "Get me the one-pager!" he cried out to an aide, who promptly delivered a single sheet of paper that had been updated almost hourly since the midterm elections with a series of statistics explaining that the "thumping" Bush took was not such a thumping after all.

The theory is this: The building's infrastructure was actually quite sound. It was bad luck and seasonal shifts in the winds that blew out the walls -- complacent candidates, an ill-timed Mark Foley page scandal and the predictable cycles of history. But the foundation is fine: "The Republican philosophy is alive and well and likely to reemerge in the majority in 2008."

The rest of Washington might think Tuesday's elections were a repudiation of Rove's brand of politics, but Rove does not. For years, he has been the center of hyperbolic attention -- called the genius, the electoral mastermind, the most powerful presidential adviser in a century, Bush's brain, the master of the dark arts of wedge politics, the Republican Moses leading conservatives out of the desert.

<snip>

In an expansive interview last week, Rove said that strategy was working until the House page sex scandal involving ex-representative Foley (R-Fla.) put the Republican campaign "back on its heels," as he put it. "We were on a roll, and it stopped it," he said. "It revived all the stuff about Abramoff and added to it."

[HaggardsMethDealer]

1. Unflappable my ass!

He looked like a defeated child when Bush gave him that verbal smackdown at his whiny pres conference. He just stared at his lap and smirked.

Plus let us not forget about all of the weight he lost when Fitzgerald was on his ass....he looked like a scared little boy than too.

More Mainstream Media drivel.

[bluestateguy]

2. This year, we kicked his fat ass!

[durtee librul]

3. Yep

Stay the course KKkkkkarl.....

[Ignacio Upton]

4. Sadly Rove might be right

We didn't beat their Right-Wing Noise Machine, so much as it's bark and bite wasn't enough to overcome a torrent of bad news against them. Had it not been for the Noise Machine and robocalls, we would have gained 40+ seats in the House and maybe have won in Tennessee. We won by delivering the knockout punch to the Republicans. We have to assume that the infarstructure of what Rove created is still humming. Limbaugh and Hannity are still on the air, and the Heritage Foundation has no plans to shutter its doors.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

27. That's the facts and they will use the corp whore media to blame it all on Dem's, now through 2008

It's already started with the "Democrats have to solve Iraq immediately" even though the only control congress has over the war is funding and the whore media knows this but ignores that fact to undermine our efforts.

[sweetheart]

5. He's the Wile E. Coyote genus

His genus clearly has the day, leading the republicans so brilllliantly on behalf of the interests of
humankind, in to a quicksand for a bridge too far. Iraq was always a bridge too far.. beep beep motherfucker.

[PATRICK]

6. One trick pony

The contradiction(which he thrives upon) is that he is taking credit for being UNABLE to turn the scandals away from the GOP as an example how he is absolutely correct in his strategy. he wants credit in the loss, not blame. Of course the blame belongs to Foley and one of his patented creatures, Abramoff- for getting caught. Rove, if caught, is never to blame of course. I hope he gets to grin and gyrate within a prison cell about how clever and winning he is.

This is NOT what the GOP candidates, always nervous about this vacuous bluff and corruption, have ever really believed. They will be the last fools to swallow this last prancing lie.

But where will they go now?

[Vidar]

15. Actually I count two: slander & spin. But since both stem from the

ability to lie, I guess you're right about one trick.

[The Deacon]

7. "And..and..

What about that Student Council race at Patrick Henry College? We won that in a landslide! A landslide!" You're a pathetic sack of shit, Rove. Just go sit in the corner until its time to measure you for your orange jump suit (you didn't think we'd forgotten that little matter of all your felonies, did you, Dough Boy? That pursed little mouth of yours is going to make you the Belle of the Ball in Levenworth.)

[Jim Sagle]

9. Or maybe they'll just pop an apple in his mouth and roast him.

[Cha]

33. Yeah...I was thinking along those

lines. "Steadfast" as a stuck pig.

[tabasco]

20. Maybe he's going in exile to Paraguay with Dubya.

Bush just bought some land down there.

I'm sure Bush can pay enough to avoid being extradited.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. "It was bad luck and seasonal shifts in the winds"...

Bwwaahhhhhaaaahhhaaaaa!


:rofl:

[badgervan]

10. Four Photographs of Lincoln in the Turd's Office?

Somewhere, Honest Abe is crying in shame for what turdblossom and this crew have done to our country.

[saracat]

11. Isn't it amazing how he refers to the corruption as an abstract?

He doesn't even think the people whp perpetuated those crimes were wrong. It really was too bad the Abramhoff scandal was "revived'. It was supposed to "go away" and no one be brought to justice.What a rat bastard Rove is.He should be tried as a traitor to this nation.

[NashVegas]

23. It's a Good Thing He Says He's Retiring From Campaigns

Because if Rove did become involved in an '08 campaign, he'd eventually end up as a public disgrace, possibly jail.

Read Joshua Green's 'Rove in a Corner' article to see why. I don't think he'll be able to get away with this again, not soon, anyway.

[truthisfreedom]

12. his house of cards only works if "the wind don't blow."

rove used up all of his luck.

[w4rma]

13. Delusional and inventing delusions to the end. (nt)

[Eugene]

14. It's all Mark Foley's fault?

The "stuff about Abramoff" was put to rest before that?
Sure, if you forget that Repugs involved in that scandal
were just starting to fall like dominoes (Safavian, Ney,
Ralston, etc.)

Election losses were just a case of bad luck. Rover actually
kept Republican losses from getting worse.

The new meme from the adminstration is that voters didn't
really reject the Republicans when they kicked them out
of office. Exit polls that cite Iraq and corruption as top
concerns should not be trusted. If Republican policies
don't go right, it is always somebody else's fault.
Politics as usual.

[luckyleftyme2]

17. corruption always leaves a bad taste

Thats one boy that needs an ass whuppin,he is without doubt an evil being. and i'm sure it will take many years for the people to get over the corrupt use of power the republicans displayed. so my prediction is the next election democrats will win more seats in the senate and the house,and it will be a democratic landslide for the whitehouse.

rove and the texas mafia are done!

[shanti]

53. right

but not after we (the american people) have been ridden hard and put away wet. we will have a lot of cleaning up to do.

[CJCRANE]

16. Reality bites.

Get used to it Karl.

[maseman]

18. Blame Foley and bad luck?

First of all he isn't a dumb man. He knows what he is saying is utter bullshit. But he is a spin-meister so what is he supposed to say? "I fucked up?"

Yeah, FOley didn't help matters. But the bottom line is people were sick of this repuke administration before Foley. Look at the polls. The war in Iraq was the real Nexus behind people's decisions. Why was Rumsfeld fired if it were Foley's fault we lost the election KKKarl?

The war in Iraq, the war on terra (which really means finding OBL) is viewed as going very mediocre, the drop in home prices and the bursting housing market bubble, the lack of jobs, the high cost of gas (great try dropping prices from $2.90 to $2.40 and saying how much it has dropped), the high price of heating fuels, the complete self-destruction of the auto manufacturers in the US, the high cost of health care and drugs in the US, are just a few things that made you lose the election turd-burger.

[CJCRANE]

22. Yep, he's stuck in the spin cycle.

Rove-Bush would have done much better politically if they had fessed up to their mistakes earlier and simply tried something new.

But instead of changing the course they just changed the spin.

[NashVegas]

24. The Foley Factor

Josh Marshall published an interesting letter some time ago, from someone who speculated that the Foley scandal allowed people, who were disappointed with the Republicans over Iraq and everything else but wanted to publicly keep their heels dug in, to back away.

[moondust]

19. He was sooooooo confident.

The jeenyus of phoney baloney.

[Demeter]

21. "an ill-timed Mark Foley page scandal"

Yes, we should always time our scandals for the off-year, so that the inebriated public has 12 months to forget about it---

Karl, you BEGGED Foley to stay on and run again--you can't avoid the responsibility for that little fiasco.

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. All he's got are excuses

It's never anything he did wrong.

Rove's biggest problem is that his election machine has fallen apart. He no longer has Abramoff and that crew to funnel money to their teams of dirty tricksters. Then Rove lost his right hand gal, Susan Ralston to run the numbers for him. Roger Stone and Jeff Gannon were out because they've become too famous.

Combine that with, George and Laura who are both about to crack in public and even the mighty Rove can't cheat his way to a win anymore.

[Rose Siding]

26. Yeah, and Bumblesfeld will be SecDef for the rest of bush's term

If their lips are moving....

[against all enemies]

28. He'll just rachet up the hate. It's the only thing he does good.

[mitchum]

29. Rove is just an ad man desperately trying to explain to his client...

that his "brilliant" marketing campaign WAS successful (despite all evidence to the contrary)
Pathetic.
He should just kill himself.

[skids]

30. Why does anyone care what "the mathemetician" says anymore?

He's already shown that when he opens his mouth, the only thing that comes out is horse manure.

Why even bother to listen to a word he says? I mean, unless you like the smell of sulphur.

[screenplaya]

31. He's Just Spinning...

...it is too bad that journalists like the awful kissass Mike Allen of TIME still hang on his every spew.

[badgervan]

34. yep

Allen is just one of many, including an uncomfortable number of Washington Post writers - Baker, Kurtz, Weisman, Hiatt, Balz, Broder, Applebaum, etc. They are so concerned about providing "balance" that the facts have become secondary, or ignored. Depressing.

[woo me with science]

32. Anyone else find it creepy

that he uses the analogy of buildings falling down for the election?

[Lilith Velkor]

55. mmhmmm

That's downright creepy indeed.

[rug]

35. Oh, he was flapped all right.

[blogslut]

36. Hey Karl

moo

[libodem]

37. He deserves his own special oversight committee

and a special investigation of his actions.

[mikeybabe125]

38. Upbeat Rove says GOP setback only temporary

--snip--

For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usual unflappable mood. He roamed around his windowless West Wing office decorated with four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copies of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" into his bag and signing the last paperwork of the day.

The Architect, as President Bush once called him, has a theory for why the building fell down. "Get me the one-pager!" he shouted to an aide who promptly delivered a single sheet of paper that has been updated almost hourly since the Tuesday's election with a series of statistics and historical facts explaining that the "thumping" Bush took was not such a thumping after all.

The theory is this: The building's infrastructure is quite sound. It was bad luck and seasonal shifts in the winds — complacent candidates combined with an ill-timed Mark Foley page scandal — that blew out the walls. But the foundation is fine: "The Republican philosophy is alive and well and likely to re-emerge in the majority in 2008."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003405720_rove12.html

I personally think Karl knows something and/or is in the process of something that will destroy Democrats... at least try. I mean, it's not like he did not do it before.

[HaggardsMethDealer]

39. I personally think that Bush is toast and going to get run out on a rail.

nm

[Phredicles]

40. Wasn't he also weirdly confident before the election?

And this lead people here to fret, "Omigawd, he's got something diabolical up his sleeve!" But look what happened. I think the time is coming to consign Rove to the "over-rated" list.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

51. "weirdly confident"

bout sums it up.

[MadMaddie]

41. True....but I think that he and the cabal are at the point of no

return...the American people don't want his kind of evilness and meaness...whatever it is like so many of their fiendish plots will back fire and become another fuck up....

[Erika]

42. The Americans have seen the neocon GOP face

and it's one piece of evil. So have the hood winked religious right. Ding Dong, the neocons are dead.

[valerief]

43. Anagram Rove and you get Over. He's so Over. nt

[zann725]

44. "Setback temporary?" Please, Karl! The "Wizard of Oz" is on this wk.

Watch it...particularly the 'drawn back curtain.'

Or the part where the House lands atop the wicked person...

[Ken Burch]

45. It goes without saying that Rove would say something like this...he has to.

Did anyone honestly think KKKarl would actually say "we're screwed and it's all MY fault. Now I'm going home to open a vein"?

These guys NEVER admit they've lost.

[madmusic]

46. It's the propaganda, stupid!

Voters are on to it. If the voters were as informed in '04, BushCo would not have won, and he would never have won. The sheeple ware waking up and going, "Bahhhhhh."

And the investigations will reveal just how knee deep your propaganda was, genius boy.

You're not even toast. You're the crumbs that fell out when we turned the toaster upside down.

[mikeybabe125]

47. I dunno I guess...

after seeing "Bush's Brain" It seems someone that intelligent and that genius in what he did, seems like that a mistake down the line just cant be the end for this guy. If no one has seen it you can download it here for $5

http://www.indiepix.net/promo/promo_2171.pl?ref=americablog

[skipos]

48. "is in the process of something that will destroy Democrats"

Lots of people said that a week ago, and look what happened. This asshole will always "be upbeat" and "stay the course." His stupid attitude helped us win in 06, it may help us in 08.

[bluestateguy]

49. He lost. He needs to get over it.

nt

[upi402]

50. Yes, they'll increase after the investigations start. Temporarily small majority

[Matilda]

52. Rove's comment could be taken to mean that Bush is expendable.

He's no further use to them, but who, or what, does Rove have waiting in the wings?

I'm a little bit worried that they didn't cheat with the voting machines - are they trying to lull
the Dems into a false sense of security? I can't believe they suddenly got an attack of honesty,
so what's up?

Memo to Dems: Must get paper trails everywhere ......

[foo_bar]

54. it's just a flesh wound!