[Zakeet]

I'm waiting for an ambulance ride to the above place as I post this article.

The shock of seeing an intelligent, unbiased commentary in the Washington comPost was simply too much!

[hoosierham]

The purpose of the article was to show that even Republicans believe in big government and that conservatives are a tiny minority without power or relevancy.

[ohioWfan]

Unbiased? C’mon. Think that through.

[MinuteGal]

Carl Rove is a cherubic-faced CINO, but his Obama-exposing analyses cause me to reluctantly overlook this fact.

Leni

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Well, he doesn’t believe in God so I know he’s not a christian conservative. We’re all sure he’s not a fiscal conservative. He believes in more Government so he’s not a libertarian conservative.

What kind of conservative is he?

[Jim W N]

I thought the main distinguishing feature of the so-called “neo conservatives” was their love of big government, which is anathema to a true conservative. Is this article true which would fold Rove into the neo-conservative thing? I wouldn’t have known that.

[eclecticEel]

Really? What was the first clue?

[major-pelham]

I think I have a different take on the prescription drugs benefit. I can see where Bush II thought without such a benefit, calls for socialized medicine would overwhelm the conservative movement and win over the Sr’s for the Dems. In other words, they were doing the Lord’s work to prevent even worse action from the Lefty’s. I doubt Bush or Rove could have envisioned that the next POTUS would be a rigid Marxist with massive congressional majorities that would overwhelm both our sensibilities and our Constitution and make that prescription benefit seem nothing more than a radar blip. In sum, Bush (Rove) wasn’t giving into to the socialists, he thought he was beating them to the punch with only a quarter loaf.

[OrangeHoof]

I felt Rove had the gift of taking a highly electable George W Bush and squeaking him twice across the finish line of elections that shouldn’t have been so close. Under his direction, Republicans chose RINOs over conservatives for federal office, even from conservative states that could have been better served with a stronger voice (NC, SC, TX as examples). They petulantly refused to support Republican conservatives that upset their darling RINOs in the primaries (Shundler in NJ, Simon in CA), dooming them to defeat in the general election.

I’ve always taken Rove with a grain of salt. He’s not a bad man but he’s no conservative hero.

[hosepipe]

A BIG government republican is really a covert democrat..
AND not FOR a republic BUT For a democracy.. i.e. covert democrat..

** meaning: confused democrat at best, democrat mole at worst..

[AuntB]

Rove with the help of Grover Norquist is who led GW down the amnesty path, and didn’t hesitate to call anyone who didn’t like it ‘bigots’.

Karl Rove says George Bush missed chance for immigration reform
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2468200/posts

[snip[According to a congressman’s wife who attended a Republican women’s luncheon yesterday, Karl Rove explained the rationale behind the president’s amnesty/open-borders proposal this way: “I don’t want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas.”

There should be no need to explain why this is an obscene statement coming from a leader in the party that promotes the virtues of hard work, thrift, and sobriety, a party whose demi-god actually split fence rails as a young man, a party where “respectable Republican cloth coat” once actually meant something.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTZhZDdiYmJlNDViYTAwOWExNmUyMmQ5ODlmMWYwYTU

[AlanD]

Bush made clear his feelings about traditional conservatism. According to a memoir by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, the president was unhappy about references to the conservative “movement” in the draft of the speech. “Take out all this movement stuff,” the president said. “There is no movement.”

George W. Bush: Worst Republican President since Gerald Ford

[jpl]

First Rove, then Emmanuel... I've got to be honest: I don't care for this new trend of the White House and the Presidency being run by the political campaign strategists.

It may be good for the President himself, but it's bad for the country as a whole.

[Magnatron]

As I always used to tell my left-wing friends:

“I don’t know what you all are whining about. Bush is the best Democrat the Republicans ever elected!”

[Psalm 144]

I really enjoyed listening to Rove’s recent interview with Rush Limbaugh. Rush did not interrupt or talk over Rove, kept all questions on point and focused, and in about 10 minutes I knew why we were left with nothing of the Reagan revolution at the end of the Bush-Clinton-Bush years of complacency.

The ‘architect’. Heh. More like the ‘arsonist’.

[Parley Baer]

You mean to tell me the WAPO knows what a conservative is? They still do not get the tea pary movement.

[SpaceBar]

Karl Rove told a room full of reporters at a dinner a few years back that there was nothing that we could do about illegal immigration. We are where we are precisely because of people like Mr. Rove. The sooner he is tossed in the wastebin of history the better.

[Will88]

Rove’s next book should be about how he and W managed to move Republican’s from arguably their strongest position of power in anyone’s memory in 2004, to one of their weakest positions in memory by 2008.

[SoConPubbie]

In his memoir, Rove defends the Bush record as a truly conservative one. ... "Just look at his tax cuts, pro-life and pro-family stands; his support of free trade and reducing regulation; his belief that competition improves health care, the environment and Social Security; and his insistence on education results."

Rove thinks were all stupid and his used care salesman tricks still work.

They don't.

There was nothing conservative about:

1. Medicare Expansion
2. No Child Left Behind
3. The brazen attempt at Amnesty
4. His signing of the McCain-Feingold bill and passing his responsibility to the Supreme Court.
5. His total lack of fiscal responsibility.

There was no small-government approach to GWB or Rove.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: "Karl Rove is no conservative, as his memoir shows...."

Response: Probably true but one gives him a hearing anyway. We are not mind numbed robots; Mr. Rove's statements can be checked in most instances.

[freespirited]

I agree with the criticisms in the article, but am less sure that Karl gave them out of personal conviction than out of a belief that these actions would grow the GOP. For ex, we are all familiar with Karl’s belief that the GOP is the natural place for Hispanics because of their family values. He still believes this despite years of contrary election results.

My best guess is that Karl is more conservative personally than the advice he gave Dubya but thought some of these hare-brained ideas would bring more people into the GOP. I do enjoy his appearances on FOX.