SCOTT HORTON: Karl Rove in a Corner

[L. Coyote]

Karl in a Corner
Scott Horton - April 6, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002812

... When I have spoken with Rove’s friends and his competitors in Texas, Alabama, and other states where he refined his skills ....
But then we come, very quickly, to the dark side of the genius of Karl Rove. In 1970, Rove, using a fake ID card, entered the campaign office of Alan J. Dixon, a candidate for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole a box of Dixon’s campaign letterhead and used it to solicit homeless people to attend Dixon’s campaign events, promising free food and alcohol, and disrupting the events.

.... But all of this is minor. The graver matters go to the tactics he embraces. ... rumor campaigns questioning their sexual orientation, adulterous liaisons and similar tawdry matters. Prime examples of this were the rumor campaign launched against Texas Governor Anne Richards ....

Second, Rove’s opponents would regularly find that they had suddenly become the target of a criminal investigation, and details concerning the investigation would be aggressively fanned to the press. ....

Third, and probably the most characteristic of the Rovian tools—“swiftboating.” Rove would cultivate groups which were arguably distant from the campaign proper which would run extremely well funded vitriolic ad hominem attacks on the adversary. ....

These days, Karl is taking a bit of heat over his involvement in the Siegelman case. .....

[leftofthedial]

1. Rove's mentor, Lee Atwater,

called it "ratfucking"

[L. Coyote]

2. Doesn't that go back to Nixon?

[Botany]

3. From wiki

As a protégé of Donald Segretti (later convicted as a Watergate conspirator), Rove painted the Nixon opponent George McGovern as a "left-wing peacenik", in spite of McGovern's World War II stint piloting a B-24.

[FogerRox]

5. 35 missions over Europe.

[L. Coyote]

7. Ratf**king was happening in 1968 I know, but the word usage I do not recall

then. Of course, I was naive to the practice then.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Dirty Tactics R Us......Selfish Mentality produces these kinds of behavior

Hardly the type to lead the Nation....effectively that is.

[elleng]

11. Lee Atwater

apologized.

"My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring -- acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

[L. Coyote]

12. visibility kick

[Raster]

15. Isn't that nice....so much pain and grief, venom and lies... and on his deathbed...

"...gee folks, I'm sorry, I didn't really mean it."

Yeah, whatever. Burn in hell!

[elleng]

17. He DID mean it, at the time;

its difficult, and I can't say I forgive, but I accept his late-found regrets.

[Raster]

14. May he BURN IN HELL!!!

atwater was the original ratfucker...kkkarl, roger ailles and atwater all slithered from the same nest of nixonian vipers.

[EFerrari]

6. pleasepleaseplease.

:kick:

[Ellipsis]

8. He's CAT FUD!

Your post reminded me of one of his famous cartoons which out of respect I won't post but the above jpg works well enough.

K&R and off to the Greatest you go.

[kster]

9. Which one will they use, Nascar Dads ? Soccer moms? Undecideds?

they need a good reason as to why their candidate of choice won the election over the will of the people.

Maybe they will go with the Nader reason as to why the election swung to their preferred candidate.

Can't wait to find out. :)

K&R

[bleever]

10. RFers here:

[UTUSN]

13. Gosh, somebody who writes in Harper's spells "Ann RICHARDS" as "Anne"?!1

Maybe that's why KKKarl has gotten away with murder, because his opponents are clueless, in addition to being too LATE.

[L. Coyote]

18. cheap shot

[samsingh]

16. let's see if there is any justice for this treacherous monster