Tag Archives: Karl Rove

Karl Rove Working Hard to Put Right Wing Politicians Back in Power

Karl Rove is back, working his brand of in your face right wing hard ball politics. He’s joined with former Republican Party Chair Ed Gillespie and others to set up a network of  right wing campaign organizations to raise money and push their agenda to bring the former Republican Party politics and policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney back to America. Sounds like they are trying to make Halloween a year round event for America.

As outlined in more depth in an article in Politico a few days ago:

The Republican Party’s best-connected political operatives have quietly built a massive fundraising, organizing and advertising machine based on the model assembled by Democrats early in the decade, and with the same ambitious goal — to recapture Congress and the White House.


The new groups could give Republicans and their allies a powerful campaign apparatus separate from the Republican National Committee. Karl Rove, political architect of the Bush presidency, and Ed Gillespie, former Republican Party chairman, are the most prominent forces behind what is, in effect, a network of five overlapping groups, three of which were started in the past few months….

The network, which doesn’t have a name, attempts to replicate the Democracy Alliance, an umbrella group — founded in 2005 and funded by George Soros and other billionaires — and to borrow tactics from liberal groups established to help Democrats regain power after eight years of the Bush administration 

The new organizations include:

American Crossroads plans to raise $50 million as a shadow alternative to the Republican National
Committee. Ed Gillespie is a chief advisor.

American Action Network is headed up by former Sen Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Their focus will be polling and media advertising.

American Action Forum includes former Governor Jeb Bush and Tom Ridge and former Senator Norm Colman on their Board. It appears to be another right wing policy generating machine.

Resurgent Republican is another free market conservative policy shaping group trying to influence politics through polling and focus groups and blogging.

The Republican State Leadership Committee raised $22 million in the last election cycle and is focused on trying to aid conservatives in down ballot races.

This is an important election year that will have repercussions for years to come. Republicans in affiliation with Tea Party fanatics and others are organizing and revving up the right wing noise machine with all its slanted polling and opinion pushing efforts.  They are gearing up fundraising and campaign organizing.

Democrats need to regroup and realize we have a tough fight on our hands.  The key comes down to motivation and voting. Obama is moving the country in the right direction.  It is easy however  for many to be swayed by the right wing noise and yelling and shouting and slanted polling. It is up to the Democrats to get back to the basics of organizing and reaching voters and getting them out to vote.

The Republicans are motivated, seeing blood in the water. For Democrats the choice was never more clear. We can’t afford to go back to corporations setting our environmental policies and threatening our health and the future of our planet.  We can not afford to go back to an unregulated free market economy that puts greed and corporate profit over jobs and homes and education for middle class Americans.

We can’t afford more right wing activist judges in our court system and on the US Supreme Court. We can not afford to waste energy and send hard earned dollars overseas when we could be spending them creating jobs in America. It amazing that after 8 disastrous years of Bush/Cheney that Americans might once again buy the right wing propaganda of corporatism and militarism and isolationism of the Republicans when serious national and world problems confront us all.

The choice is yours. Get involved in campaigns and get your family and friends involved. Vote in the Primary and general Election. The choice is clear. Vote for a sane future with the Democrats, not a return to the Bush/Cheney Republican nightmare years that brought us the current Great Recession.

What’s Behind Karl Rove’s Resignation?

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Karl Rove is abandoning the sinking Bush ship. He gives the reason as wanting to spend more time with his family. There is obviously more to this than meets the eye.

My guess is that he wants to be free to work for the Republicans to try to keep the White House.
Considering all the dirty tricks that are associated with his being around expect him to be a political consultant of one form or another to the Republican Presidential nominees and eventual nominee or the Republican National Party.

Expect that he could pop up quietly working with Senate or House races. And don’t be surprised to see him involved in the effort to chnage the electoral college rules that California Republicans are kicking off.

see also:

Washington Post “Karl Rove, Advisor to President to Resign”

Washington Post Transcript of Bush and Rove Announcing Resignation

CNN VIdeo of Resignation Statement

LA Times “Karl Rove, Chief Adviser to Bush, Stepping Down”

BBC “Top White House Aide Rove Resigns”

Rovian Timing of Saddam Death Penalty Just Chance?

Don’t tell me Karl Rove and Bush didn’t somehow have a hand in the timing of today’s announcement of the death penalty for Saddam Hussein. The verdict had previously been scheduled to be released earlier. But two days before a crucial election that will determine the fate of who controls Congress? Give me a break.

What better way to try to deflect Bush’s failures in Iraq than by having Saddam declared guilty today. It is brilliant election eve strategy to focus people’s attention on the one thing both Democrats and Republicans can agree on – that Saddam was a murderous dictator that deserved to be punished.

You have to hand it to Rove and company for strategic timing. But American voters need to keep focused on the larger picture and keep the conviction of Saddam in perspective. His conviction was a forgone conclusion and not unexpected.

Tuesday’s vote is not about Saddam Hussein. The vote is about whether Republicans deserve to control Congress. The vote is about American’s future actions in Iraq. It is about many things that need to change in America.

Voters need to remember that Republicans retaining control of Congress would be a vote for staying the course in Iraq.
It would be a vote in favor of ignoring action to reduce global warming.
It would be a vote in favor of not working for real energy independence and for supporting the oil companies stealing from consumer’s pockets by their record profits.
It would be a vote in favor of opposing stem cell research and opposing decisions based on science rather than politics and religion.
It would be a vote decreasing citizen protections guaranteed in the constitution and for giving the President more power.
It would be a vote for opposing an increase in the minimum wage and a vote for opposing health care for all Americans.
It would be a vote to ignore helping students get a college education at a reasonable cost.
It would be a vote for drug company profits over senior citizens’ financial independence.
It would be a vote for eliminating audits of Iraq contracts

A lot is at stake. Do we want one party rule and secrecy and special interests and corporations dictating the future of our country or do we want to restore checks and balances against unbridled Presidential power and a Republican Congress that can’t police itself and which doesn’t address critical priorities?

Avoid the smoke and mirrors of Republican domination. A Democratic vote on Tuesday is a vote to put our country’s future first rather than special interests. A Democraic vote on Tuesday would be to put Democrats in power in Congress and end one party rule. A Democratic vote on Tuesday would be restore the system of checks and balances on power in Washington. A Democratic vote on Tuesday will be a vote to resolve the Ieaq conflict now, not pass it on to some future President.

Democrats need to keep in mind that even if they win one or both houses of Congress, the White House would still be run by Bush. He would be able to veto any legislation he doesn’t want and would probably now exercise this power. He would still control all the Agencies and Departments that he does now. But at least there would be a check and a balance on the Executive Branch that hasn’t been present under the unchecked and unbalanced one party rule of the Republicans now controlling both Congress and the White House.

It’s time for a change. Vote to put the Democrats in charge of the US House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Vote for Democrat Maria Cantwell for US Senate.

Vote for Democrats Darcy Burner, Peter Goldmark, and Richard Wright for Congress.

Is Karl Rove Laughing his Head off at Washington’s Progressives?

Of course! If Karl Rove wanted to misdirect progressive Democrats away from the national strategy of taking control of the U.S. Senate and/or House, what better way than to have the Democrats fighting each other over, of all things, Bush’s never ending War in Iraq.

It’s time for those Democrats who question Senator Cantwell’s position on Iraq to realize that Iraq is not her war. She did not start it but she is part of the dialogue looking for a solution. She is a member of a minority party. Republicans run Washington, not Senator Cantwell or any other Democrat.

Democrats are fighting amongst themselves about a war they didn’t start and about which they and the American people were lied to by Bush. Meanwhile these same Democrats ignore other things the Republicans and Bush are dismal on, like not raising the minimum wage over the last 10 years or not fighting global warming or not aggressively working for energy independence from foreign oil or Bush’s giving tax breaks that only increase the share of the money the very rich have.

This issue was discussed several weeks ago in MSNBC’s Newsweek Politics.Rove’s Trap
The president’s strategist is politicizing the Iraq war for partisan political gain. Will the Dems figure out how to fight back?

Lets pick just one quote from that article : “….It’s very Rovean; they’re trying to turn a weakness into a strength.” Another Democratic strategist noted the irony that after four years of no accountability on the mistakes made in prosecuting the Iraq war, the administration was hanging Democrats out to dry. This strategist called it “reverse accountability” shift the blame to those not in charge.”

shift the blame to those not in charge” Can it be any clearer?

Left wing peace and progressive Democrats in Washington State are falling into this trap. They are doing Karl Rove’s dirty work by attacking Senator Maria Cantwell on Iraq. They are dividing the Democratic Party because she is not willing to sign off on some left wing purity test which one commenter on my previous blog post phrased as having her say “she was either duped, pressured or just flat wrong” when she joined 29 other Democrats in the US Senate who voted in 2002 to give Bush authority to invade Iraq.

Frankly I don’t know what this would do to get us out of Iraq. As I’ve said before this is George Bush’s war. Republicans control the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate and the Presidency. Democrats are the minority party and do not control any committees and can not conduct any hearings on the Iraq War.

And yet some progressive Democrats continue to attack Senator Maria Cantwell like this is her war and she has some kind of stronghold over what happens? If Senator Maria Cantwell suddenly changed into a Russ Feingold Democrat, what would that do to end the war? Nothing – because it does nothing to change the fact that the Democrats are the minority party and do not have the votes to do anything. Congressman Jay Inslee has commented in the past how Democrats in Congress are not even consulted on bills the Republicans run – there is no bipartisanship going on in Washington DC. We have a one party government and that is a Republican Party controlled government.

For the life of me why aren’t these progressive Democrats putting pressure on Mike McGavick about his position on Iraq. Am I missing something here? Because if there are some of you who do like you say and won’t help Cantwell get elected and won’t vote for her then you are supporting McGavick for Senate and are acting to support Karl Rove and George Bush and the Iraq War as it now stands.

Strategic thinking is important. What is it you want to accomphlish? Will you do that by the tactics you are using or are you falling into a Rovean trap?

Lets look at what Cantwell’s opponent says on Iraq.

Going to McGavick’s website there is scant information on Iraq: I could find only these two written statements.

The U.S. cannot retreat from the War on Terror or countries like Iraq will turn into the worst hotbeds of terror the world has ever witnessed.

U.S. forces will come home from Iraq when the job is finished. Setting a timetable for troop pullout gives the advantage to America’s terrorist enemies.

These statements say very little except that McGavick supports Rove and Bush and Rumsfeld. The reality is McGavick is a vote for Bush’s War in Iraq. This is the alternative to Senator Maria Cantwell?

Some people are upset that Mark Wilson is no longer challenging Senator Maria Cantwell in the Democratic primary. I would argue that there really was not much of a challenge going on in the first place. Wilson publicly stated on the David Goldstein show on KIRO 710 radio that he never really intended to file for the Democratic Party primary but was trying to give a voice to opposition to the war. Huh?

While I can appreciate Wilson trying to raise important issues in the Democratic Party – maybe he was just a little bit dishonest in trying torepresent himself as a serious candidate for U.S. Senator. Or maybe he is just trying to put a face saving spin on the fact that his campaign didn’t get the support he needed to run a successful race and he didn’t want to be known as the Democrat who helped Mike McGavick get elected.

But to anyone looking at the state Democratic Convention in Yakima last month it was obvious that Wilson never stood a chance. While I support progressives and consider myself one, there really is no organized unified progressive movement in Washington state. That was obvious when the “Progressive Caucus” met at the state convention.

There was no organized game plan of how to increase the influence of progressives in the party and when volunteers were asked to help recruit more, the hands raised were few. Mark Wilson attended the caucus but he did not seem to have a vision of how to organize the state. It appeared that he was waiting for others to put it together.

I mention this because any organized movement is difficult. But it does need leaders and it does need a plan. It needs vision and it needs people ready and willing to help. I saw well intentioned good people involved but it was not going to help Mark. He was on his own.

As a result Mark Wilson never was a really viable candidate, having neither the money or volunteers or widespread backing to run a statewide campaign against the incumbent.

I believe it’s time for progressives to move on. A few vocal voices and bloggers do not make a movement. We need to not make Washington a swing state in the Senate race, so national Democratic resources need to be directed here, at the expense of other Democratic candidates.

Besides helping Senator Cantwell get re-elected, we need to assist in races where new Democrats can win – like Darcy Burner (WA-8) and Peter Goldmark (WA-5). Picking up seats in Congress to give Democrats a majority in at least one branch of Congress will be the best strategy to end the War in Iraq.

Asking Senator Maria Cantwell to submit to some progressive purity test right now won’t mean anything if Democrats don’t win control of the U.S. House and/or Senate.

This election is certainly a referendum on Iraq for Bush. Unfortunately if Democrats don’t pick up seats in Congress, it will be used as an confirmation by Bush that the American people support his position on Iraq. And we will have missed our best opportunity in 6 years to change American politics for the better.

Expect to See More Rove Dirty Tricks in this Year’s Political Campaigns

Breaking news in the Baltimore Sun says that Press Secretary Scott McClellan is resigning as Bush’s Press Secretary.

But I see the bigger news as the mention that Carl Rove is “giving up oversight of policy development” . The reason for the reassignment is to “focus more on politics with the approach of the fall elections”

The Washington Post says it better in it’s subheadline “Karl Rove Gives up Policy Post to Focus on 2006 Election.”

I think we here in Washington state and across the country can expect and should prepare for the worst. This ‘reassignment” is really another admission that the Republicans are worried about their prospects this fall. They are releasing their pit bull.

We can expect to see a lot more dirty politics. Don’t take my word for it. If you haven’t read either, Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W Bush President or Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W Bush now is a good time to do so.

Read the Reviews. Then read the books. The Republicans’ backs are against the wall and anything goes. Sort of like what we’ve been seeing , only expect more now.