Friday, June 24, 2005
Your Momma!
...And he would make outrageous claims, like he invented the question mark.
Wow! The blogs are on fire today about the asinine statements of Karl Rove. The White House Press Secretary rushed to back him up, as did Andrew Card, the WH-COS. Rove's comments followed a week of flip, over the top statements by Howard Dean and Dick Durban (D-IL). In my eleven years working here in DC, I've never seen anything like this. With all the challenges facing our country, all our political leaders can do, is essentially play an ongoing game of "Your Momma." The Republicans have much more to loose in this battle.
While Howard Deans comments (No Republican makes an honest living) weren't helpful to his cause, Karl Rove's were worse. You see, it is increasingly becoming apparent, to right leaning folks like me, (or instapundit, and even SC Senator Lindsey Gram), that Rove (as the key visionary for the Bush Administration) is a one trick pony. His M.O. is simple, divide and conquer. From early on in his campaign work he mastered the art of painting opponents as 1) Gay, 2) "Liberal" and 3) Not real Americans. His 'you are with me or against me' has permeated all aspects of the administration. The result is that the Bush Administration's agenda is in tatters.
Rove's problems are two fold. First, if your going to be out there making comments that attack roughly 49% of the electorate, you probably should have a record of success (or perhaps a plan) to back it up. His claim that "Democrats wanted to understand our enemy after 9/11, we wanted to go to war" (or something close to that) leaves a whole so big you could drive a truck through it. I mean, maybe if the administration understood our enemies better we'd have properly prepared to fight the war in Iraq. It's the same sense of embarrassment I felt when Bush awkwardly tried to attack candidate Kerry as having a domestic agenda that would put us $2 trillion more in debt (The irony is that Bush's agenda is on track to put us far more into the red than $2 trillion). Their rhetoric rings hollow when it is clearly not supported in deed. Despite his divide and conquer approach the facts remain that:
The GOP is making one of the worst mistakes you can make in politics...they are believing their own hype, and it will cost them.
Wow! The blogs are on fire today about the asinine statements of Karl Rove. The White House Press Secretary rushed to back him up, as did Andrew Card, the WH-COS. Rove's comments followed a week of flip, over the top statements by Howard Dean and Dick Durban (D-IL). In my eleven years working here in DC, I've never seen anything like this. With all the challenges facing our country, all our political leaders can do, is essentially play an ongoing game of "Your Momma." The Republicans have much more to loose in this battle.
While Howard Deans comments (No Republican makes an honest living) weren't helpful to his cause, Karl Rove's were worse. You see, it is increasingly becoming apparent, to right leaning folks like me, (or instapundit, and even SC Senator Lindsey Gram), that Rove (as the key visionary for the Bush Administration) is a one trick pony. His M.O. is simple, divide and conquer. From early on in his campaign work he mastered the art of painting opponents as 1) Gay, 2) "Liberal" and 3) Not real Americans. His 'you are with me or against me' has permeated all aspects of the administration. The result is that the Bush Administration's agenda is in tatters.
Rove's problems are two fold. First, if your going to be out there making comments that attack roughly 49% of the electorate, you probably should have a record of success (or perhaps a plan) to back it up. His claim that "Democrats wanted to understand our enemy after 9/11, we wanted to go to war" (or something close to that) leaves a whole so big you could drive a truck through it. I mean, maybe if the administration understood our enemies better we'd have properly prepared to fight the war in Iraq. It's the same sense of embarrassment I felt when Bush awkwardly tried to attack candidate Kerry as having a domestic agenda that would put us $2 trillion more in debt (The irony is that Bush's agenda is on track to put us far more into the red than $2 trillion). Their rhetoric rings hollow when it is clearly not supported in deed. Despite his divide and conquer approach the facts remain that:
- Federal spending (excluding war costs) have increased by 1/3 since 2000,
the fastest growth since LBJ - The war in Iraq was poorly planned and administered, needlessly exposing
our troops to greater risk. - We are much deeper in debt as a nation, and our economic security
depends on Communist China buying our government debt - Gas is $2.50/gal and rising.
- GM, Ford, Delta, & Northwest are all on the verge of bankruptcy
and defaulting on their pensions.
The GOP is making one of the worst mistakes you can make in politics...they are believing their own hype, and it will cost them.
