I am anti-Rove as much as the next guy. I think much of his value is past. I will give Rove credit for understanding campaign management and strategy. He ran far superior campaigns in 2000 and 2004 to what we have seen in ‘08 and ‘12. He understood how to run a conservative campaign and still micro-target to attracts needed voting blocks. He has tremendous understanding of running a national campaign. Beyond that, like most of these consultants, is not a reliable person to advance our ideas. He has goals that are different than those of principled voters. He’d rather have Mike Castle in the Senate than Ted Cruz. He’s been with us on many of these Tea Party candidates...he is vocally supportive of Rand Paul and others.
I have major issues when he cut Angle and O’Donnell at the knees moments after the primary was decided. He has as much to blame as anyone on those when he did that. He and the Bush family did the same to Kathleen Harris in the FL Senate race 10 years ago. They cut off good people during or after the primary, and then are first to crow how they ‘couldn’t win’ afterwards. It is despicable. I wish he’d just go away at this point.
Oh, he’s shrewd when it comes to politicking - I’ll give him that. But his principles are not what our republic needs to survive. As you mentioned, Rove would rather hand the election to the Democrats than see the Republicans advance a candidate that he doesn’t support.