Karl Rove is Ruining the GOP

Politico Magazine ^ | October 7, 2014 | Brent Bozell

[goodn'mad]

Karl Rove recently tried to advise Republicans on how the party can more effectively take back the Senate in November. He made two main suggestions.

One was that Republican candidates must “make the case for electing someone new who will be a check and balance in the Senate on Mr. Obama and his agenda, rather than returning a Democratic loyalist who toes his line.” Rove’s second suggestion was that the party should “offer a positive, optimistic conservative agenda to make independents who disapprove of Mr. Obama comfortable voting Republican.”

Rove is right on both counts, especially about offering a positive and optimistic conservative agenda.

But there’s one big problem. This advice is coming from Karl Rove.

Rove has never cared about conservatism and has spent his entire career opposing any Republican who might be successful in promoting or implementing a conservative agenda.

Rove belongs to the same tradition of moderates who fought Barry Goldwater in 1964, who pushed back against Ronald Reagan in 1976 and did everything they could to stop Reagan again in 1980. They said Reagan would be a disaster for the party and even the country.

Today, Reagan is one of the most well-remembered American presidents and remains the standard-bearer for what it means to be a conservative Republican, popularizing a small government message that GOP moderates said was too extreme to resonate with voters. As with Rove’s predictions about Mitt Romney’s chances in 2012, GOP moderates couldn’t have been more wrong about Reagan.

Rove and his ilk have opposed every significant conservative leader who has ever dared to challenge liberal or moderate Republican orthodoxy. A history lesson: Moderates wanted Gerald Ford and then George H.W. Bush over Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980. Similarly, Karl Rove and his friends wanted Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2010. They wanted Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio in 2010. They wanted David Dewhurst over Ted Cruz in 2012.

Karl Rove kneecapped tea party candidates in 2010. He called Rick Perry’s policy prescriptions, many which have had great success in Texas, “toxic.” Rove said Sarah Palin lacked “gravitas.” He has said Rand Paul “causes GOP squeamishness.”

And what does he think about conservatives in general? He’s called us the Republican Party’s “nutty fringe.” This is the same man Media Matters has dubbed the Republican “voice of reason.”

When Rove founded his “Conservative Victory Project” last year, conservatives everywhere laughed. We knew this was a man who had spent his whole life making sure conservative ideas never saw the light of day.

Rove basically admitted as much, when he said his reason for forming this group was to “protect” the GOP from challenges from “far-right” conservatives and tea party enthusiasts.

In other words, Rove wanted to continue, true to form, to ensure that conservatives would have no influence on the Republican Party.

It’s now time conservatives make sure Karl Rove no longer has any influence on their party.

The last thing the GOP needs right now and in the future is for the anti-conservative professional political class to continue infecting its ranks, and the last thing we need, as conservatives, is having these same moderates infiltrating ours.

As a party, we must work together as a coalition to win elections. This has never been in dispute. But that coalition can no longer be comprised of conservatives always being told to stand down in promoting their agenda, while moderates like Rove continue to lose elections in spectacular fashion.

Conservatives have had enough. Our days of playing second fiddle to moderates are over. We should always be open to good and helpful advice — but with the hindsight and history of knowing that none of it will ever come from Karl Rove.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/karl-rove-is-ruining-the-gop-111674.html#ixzz3Fbk1QiMl

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Funny how several years ago, Rove was known around here as a “Magnificent Ba$$tard”.

Now he’s just a ba$$tard.

Wish he’d just take a lobbying job already and stop messing with GOP races.

[PoloSec]

Tokyo Rove: the consummate enemy within!

[nathanbedford]

As a party, we must work together as a coalition to win elections.

So on the eve of the election Brent Bozell leaves us with no option but to submit to the primary predations of Karl Rove. Karl Rove raised millions and spent millions to derail conservative candidates in the primaries and now that he is largely had his way we see the damage he has done in Kansas and possibly even in Mississippi and elsewhere.

We are not supposed to shirk our duty, we are not supposed to stay at home, we are not supposed to vote for a third-party candidate in protest, rather we are supposed to ride to the polls and dutifully vote for those Rino candidates which Karl Rove has inflicted upon us. To what end? The installation of Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader of the Senate where we will see the policies of Barack Obama supplemented rather than frustrated by the policies of the American Chamber of Commerce.

To do otherwise is to be a traitor to Republicanism but to comply is to be a traitor to conservatism.

Hold your nose and take your pick.

[jjotto]

It is kind of genius to lure people into emotional involvement with “our team” as if it were a sporting event.

Too bad it’s war, and RINOs are on the other side.

[goodn'mad]

It’s a devil’s dilemma, that’s for sure. I’ll never pull the lever for a liberal democrat and a 3rd party vote is a wasted vote. I’m from SC and must vote absentee. I voted straight Republican except for Lindsey Graham. I left that one blank...I’ll never vote for him. He’ll win reelection but it will be without my help. But...I waited to cast my ballot. Did it out of a sense of duty alone...totally lacked any excitement at all. Regarding the Republicans...the thrill is gone.

[goodn'mad]

And wasn’t he the one they called, “The Boy Genius?” How?

[goodn'mad]

Yes, he’s like the Clintons in that respect. Forget who it was but I heard a female correspondent say of them, “Let’s face it...they’ll never go away.” She was right and I think the same can probably be said of Rove. Until and unless the GOP realize that the guy is poison to them, he’ll remain and do more damage. But then, most of the GOP seems to be of the same stripe. Democrat lite. I’m afraid that if we ever pin our hopes on the GOP, we’ll be sadly disappointed. Guess I’m thick-headed. Took me a long time to figure that one out. I’ve lost it for them. Oh yes, I’ll vote for them (usually) but when I do so, I’m really voting against those Godless scandal liberals.

[goodn'mad]

Thanks for letting me know that. I may spend more time there. I rarely read the left leaning liberals rags anymore. Too depressing.

[cva66snipe]

Funny how several years ago, Rove was known around here as a “Magnificent Ba$$tard”. Now he’s just a ba$$tard. Wish he’d just take a lobbying job already and stop messing with GOP races.

Some still likely wait for his daily broadcast on GOP-E FOX News. Observing Rove's GOP-E loyalty also gives us a great insight as too just what both the Bush administrations was all about. The agenda was putting GOP-E hand picks in Republican races as the anointed ones while at the same time taking out the Conservative Threats.

[goodn'mad]

It’s hell fighting on two fronts but that is the unfortunate position that we find ourselves in. This is my consolation...the seeds of destruction are already embedded in the political philosophy of the hard left. They may be riding high now but I strongly believe that they have poked a finger in the eye of God. Their positions are diametrically opposed to His standards. They are corrupt and their ideas are self-defeating so it is only a matter of time. They’ll totter and then fall. It may not happen in my lifetime but if there is a just God, I know that there is, He’ll judge those who destroy the lives of innocent babies and promote homosexuality. Others may disagree but no one will ever convince me otherwise.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Daily Beast is running probably more guest conservatives than Politico - and Slate has a writer who slips up and lets some conservative common sense sneak through from time to time.

But overall, it is a depressing landscape on the lib blogs.

[goodn'mad]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. It was really there all the time i.e. how the GOP did everything they could to cost Reagan the nomination etc.

[TomGuy]

“offer a positive, optimistic conservative agenda ..."

Rove made a similar comment on FoxNews when discussing one of the Republican Senate run-offs a couple of months ago.

Luckily, I did not have a mouth full of coffee or I would have spewed all over my keyboard and monitor.

Talk about hypocrisy!

Ironically, Crossroads GPS [I think Rove is directly or indirectly connected with the Crossroads group(s)] has been running ads that accuse Arkansas Senator Pryor of voting to give Social Security to 'illegals working here illegally.'

Luckily, I did not have a mouth full of coffee or I would have spewed all over my TV.

Talk about hypocrisy from amnesty-pushing Rove and Company!

Lesson: Avoid having a mouth full of liquid or food when watching political propaganda on TV or reading it on the computer.

[C. Edmund Wright]

It was really there all the time i.e. how the GOP did everything they could to cost Reagan the nomination etc.

Yes, but the way I figure it, only people who follow this stuff, and who are 60 or 65 and older would have any recollection of that. That's only a tiny percentage of voters.

[erod]

Rove can be cast out of the GOP, but it’s going to take the election of a true conservative in 2016. The old guard of Rove, McCain, Romney, Boehner, McConnell and others suck, they have no desire to win and may blow the 2014 elections which should have been a wave. We must work hard to make sure the right candidate gets elected in 2016 so the GOP can be remade into a conservative opposition party.

[Lazamataz]

I was too young to see them sabotage Reagan but I recall hearing about it in the next decade. I heard about it a lot.

The Democrats Other Party Elite, the D.O.P.E.s, otherwise known as the GOPe, has always been against traditional America, ever since they were infiltrated in the 1960's and 1970's.

[Lakeshark]

Word is his group pulled out of the Michigan senate race, leaving Terry Lynn Land (a decently conservative woman) underfunded in a race that is winnable.

Rove, you magnificent @sshole.

[C. Edmund Wright]

I don’t know if that’s Rove’s group, or the NRSC, or both. They are dumping millions into some unwinnable race.

[Lakeshark]

I gather it’s both, but my brain is under the influence of cold meds, so I could be wrong (for a change).......:-)

[nothingnew]

Karl Rove is Ruining running the GOP

Nailed it!

FMCDH(BITS)