Karl Rove: The man Democrats should learn to love

Democrats should stop taking Karl Rove so seriously.

Rove is like the obnoxious little brother who routinely teases his big sister only because her ensuing anger is so predictably rewarding. Democrats fall for it every time. Rove opens his immature mouth, spews forth some colossal fatuity, and then sets his stopwatch to see how long it takes Democrats to denounce him and his statement. It’s never long.

As the entire world knows -- principally because Democrats made such a fuss about it -- Rove’s latest quotable fatuity was that when “Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war,” those laughingstock “liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”

In addition, with over-the-top contempt for historical integrity Rove claimed that conservatives alone decided to “unleash the might and power” of the U.S. military against the Taliban, while liberals chose to advocate petition-filing. The lowest of tommyrot, of course, and as such, deserving of the highest disregard.

But liberals (whom I conflate with Democrats only for convenience) couldn’t resist dignifying the scurrilous guttersnipe by orchestrating an anti-scurrility, anti-guttersnipe campaign. If only they could be so organized during, oh, say, a political campaign. At any rate, out came predictable Democratic outrage. What could be more satisfying to an outrage-loving whore like Rove? I can’t imagine.

The Senate minority leader demanded that “Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks,” while his House counterpart chose to flaunt her metaphorical skills: Rove “has decided to move to center stage in the theater of the absurd.” Their party chairman denounced Rove for launching “cynical political attacks,” while the party’s 2008 frontrunner labeled his comments “appalling” and “saddening.”

Yep, all true. And all liberals got in return was, as the Washington Post put it, “the GOP spin machine churning in concert” -- reinforcing Rove’s message with that shrill harmony that put the GOP where it is today: on top.

How should Democrats have responded?

Rove is a fraud. He’s a reflection of the administration, not conservatism. Yet that simple fact continues to be overlooked whenever radicals like the deputy chief of staff presume to speak for conservatives. Conservatism isn’t something Rove preaches and it’s nothing like what his boss practices, yet traditional conservatives -- those folks still fastened to quaint ideas like balanced budgets and restrained government -- have for years been suckered by posturing radicals who stand for everything true conservatism does not.

So when Rove fantasizes about what conservatives believed then, after 9/11, and what they believe now, Democrats should only pause with amusement to note that Rove seems mighty confused. He neither represents or is sympathetic to conservatism, so why is he popping off about it? His main charge is to push profoundly radical policies of a profoundly anticonservative administration.

True conservatives, Democrats should note simply, should take offense at a radical soiling their ideology in name.

It is a sad but true reality that in this country there dwells a sizable bloc of casual voters who, if asked, would say, “Well, I guess I’m a Republican, since I consider myself conservative” -- without understanding that the Republican Party hasn’t been a conservative party for years. The GOP was hijacked long ago by big-spending saber rattlers who wouldn’t know true conservatism if it parachuted into the Office of Management and Budget.

It’s time someone gave these voters an education. Karl Rove is a marvelous object lesson, and Democrats should love him for it.

Comments

[Paul Revere]

I think you're probably right.
But I think that you will find, after this administration is gone, that Rove and Bush and Rumsfeld et al are just a bunch of sniveling , yellow bellied cowards.
They are the scum of the earth, and when they are finally out from under that SS protection they have, they better watch it when they walk down the street.

[Hiram Patterson]

The democratic response should have been simple and elegant: "What do you expect from someone whom the president refers to as a turd-blossom?"

[born free]

i think the last real conservatives were the group led by goldwater that told nixon to quit before he was fired. the republican party was then systematically corrupted by the radical reich wing culminating in the election of king ronald. hard to believe, but it's been rapidly downhill ever since. the only bottom i fervently hope for is teh same fate as its predecessor party, the whigs.

evolution is real: adapt or die. the radical reich wing, with its numerous rigidities now seems unable to adapt and will eventually join the dinosaurs.