My Post on Karl Rove from March makes pretty clear that I do not consider him to be a genius. There is a difference between ruthlessness and complete disregard for opponents and political genius. There is success to be had with the complete aggression game strategy, but that success is generally short term and to work must succeed before the paybacks start. Payback comes when your over run opponents begin to build coalitions against you, it is the game version of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The other problem is that in politics you will have some enemies, but they are not the same thing as opponents, an opponent is a sometimes proposition, your opponent on one issue can be an ally on another, an enemy is always an enemy and Karl Rove has made dedicated enemies of too many people.
There are very real differences between Democrats and Republicans without manufacturing issues and engaging in complete disrespect. The engagement of ideas will produce results which are to the benefit of the nation, reducing the opposition to the role of traitors and "commies" rather than providing well reasoned alternatives may work in the short term but kills the chances of putting ideas together to get a result. Very seldom is one version the best, multiple visions provide the variables which do not occur while preaching to the choir.
I have learned in politics that it is entirely possible to treat dedicated opponents with respect and gain future ground and mute the current opposition. I also have learned that politics can poison places it does not belong, there are institutions the tone of an ideology may bring respect to that party but naked politics create backlash and the poisonous charge of things such as justice by politics. Rove's idea that government is all politics all the time contains seeds of disaster.
It seems that August might be a good time for Mr Rove to leave, Congress is out of town and for the most part seems to be lying low (probably a good idea - considering), the Plame story has had time to drift out of consciousness, the Justice Dept. firing mess is out of the headlines and the 06 elections are old fact (no matter the math). Do the Democrats need to worry about Rove? Chances are not, Rove is not popular in the electorate and the 06 losses did not endear him to Congressional Republicans and unless something very unexpectedly good happens around the BushCo policies the Republican presidential candidates will keep their distance from all things Bush. Expect a book of revisionist history political spin and lots of paid talking - a Faux News special?
1 comment:
Hey Chuck, before you get mushy on differences between Dimmos and repugs; I'll bet you a coke that the dimmos keep executive order 51 and and all other Bush, Cheney and Rove disregards of the constitution. No one gives up power.
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