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Former George W. Bush chief of staff Karl Rove has been an influential GOP strategist for decades. When Rove speaks, many Republicans listen. So when the outspoken campaign manager spoke up about Paul Ryan or Chris Christie joining the race to become the GOP nominee for the 2012 presidential election, his hint about another potential candidate entering the field also raised eyebrows. "And I also think looking at the schedule of Sarah Palin after Labor Day that she's got a campaign style schedule post-Labor Day that's either going to accentuate her celebrity hood or lay the predicate for running for...

Just because Karl Rove is behind a plot doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work.  That we’re still talking about the former Bush aide at all is a testament to his singular tenacity.  How has he done it? The man helped elect the Pelosi Congress—it was Rove who in 2006 was in charge of holding on to GOP majorities in the House and Senate. He helped elect Barack Obama—insisting that John McCain was the only “electable” Republican in 2008 and bad-mouthing most of the others running. His indispensable support of his boss' overspending and government bailouts even helped create the Tea...

Rick Perry's "treason" comments are drawing sharp criticism from a wide range of political observers and talking heads, among them Karl Rove. "You don't accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country. Of being guilty of treason," Rove, who has clashed with Perry before, told Fox News (via TPM). "And, suggesting that we treat him pretty ugly in Texas — You know, that is not, again a presidential statement." Rove continued: "If Rick Perry were to be elected president he'd be saddled with Ben Bernanke who has a term. He's an independent chairman of...

My good friends John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson offer eulogies for the Tim Pawlenty presidential campaign today at Power Line, and as usual, they are quite insightful. Scott says that Pawlenty’s descent started when he backed down from challenging Mitt Romney in an earlier debate, and notes that Republicans in this cycle want a fighter. John laments the loss of the one candidate he thought could easily beat Barack Obama based on his record, and says that Pawlenty never got past “the first impression of him as just another guy in a suit.” Both are fair conclusions, and be sure...

No surprise here! RINOs get campaign cash from mega-doners. Real conservatives has grassroots support.

.“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me,” he said to applause from several hundred GOP donors in Aspen, Colo. “That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”

"For the Bachmann campaign, this is the first big challenge. It's evidence of what happens when you jump up into the top ring of these polls, and the kind of scrutiny that you get. It's going to be important for her to get her doctors out there quickly to provide medical records and to provide the reassurance that people are going to want to have that this is not a serious issue."

According to the New York Times’ David Brooks, Republican hardliners against tax increases are turning the GOP into a “psychological protest” rather than a “normal political party.” Brooks is upset that after having forced Democrats to come far closer to their position on taxes and spending in order to cut a deal to extend the national debt ceiling, there is little chance the House majority will embrace what he considers to be “the deal of the century.” To Brooks, the Democrats’ offer on the debt ceiling is the “Mother of All No-Brainers,” and his anger at the GOP’s insistence that...

Karl Rove’s Money Machine Goes Live With $20 Million Anti-Obama Campaign (VIDEO) Evan McMorris-Santoro June 24, 2011 The real starting gun of the 2012 presidential race may be sounding Monday, and it's coming in the form of massive attack ad campaign aimed squarely at President Obama's economic record. Crossroads GPS, anonymous-money collecting arm of the Citzens United-inspired political machine founded by Karl Rove and other Republican heavyweights, is going live with a $20 million television ad campaign targeting the president 497 days before voters head to the polls in November 2012. The ads will start appearing on Monday, and will...

Former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the Federal Elections Commission has dropped a campaign finance complaint filed against last year her by the state’s Republican Party. Writing on Twitter early Thursday afternoon, the tea party-backed Republican announced “Breaking News! FEC dismissed the DE GOP Ex-Chair’s complaint against me.” O’Donnell’s Christine PAC did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. The complaint against O’Donnell alleged that she and the Tea Party Express had violated campaign finance rules barring coordination between PACs and candidates.

With Sarah Palin fever sweeping across the media again, persistent Palin critic and conservative commentator George Will clearly was not excited by the speculation surrounding her potential run for President. Donna Brazile, Jonathan Karl and Ed Gillespie joined in on the conversation, yet Will had the most pointed remarks regarding how Palin is a “genius at manipulating” the infinite media attention she receives. Christiane Amanpour began the segment commenting “no one steals a show like Sarah Palin,” and while Will admits she will have a huge impact on the nomination process if she does decide to run, he still dismisses...

Now that two of the top three candidates for the Republican nomination have pulled out of the race, the big winner is the one candidate left standing: Mitt Romney. The polling before Huckabee and Trump pulled out was — in my survey — Romney-22, Huckabee-20, Trump-15, Gingrich-11, Palin-9, Bachmann-6, Pawlenty-3, and Daniels-2. Now, Romney will inherit a large proportion of the votes left on the table by Huckabee’s and Trump’s withdrawal. My polling suggests that, based on the expressed second choices of the Huckabee and Trump voters, Romney will get 30% of Huckabee’s voters and 40% of Trump’s. These additions...

"O'Reilly Factor" producer Jesse Watters caught up with Donald Trump in New Hampshire on Wednesday and asked him what he thought of Charles Krauthammer's personal attacks, the latest one comparing "The Donald" to a "crackpot" "drunk." Mr. Trump shot back at Krauthammer, calling him a "sad fool" who was trying to ride his coattails for publicity. http://nation.foxnews.com/donald-trump/2011/04/28/trump-and-krauthammer-take-personal-attacks-new-level

The man who inspired the documentary "Bush's Brain" and was the political mastermind behind George W. Bush's presidency got no vote of confidence from potential GOP candidate Donald Trump during a recent interview on Fox News. Trump, speaking with Greta van Susteren on "On The Record," literally named the former White House chief political adviser and one-time chief of staff as the "man who ran Bush into the ground." "Bush finished so weak that we ended up getting Obama," Trump said. "(Rove) ran the man into the ground. "And the more I see about Karl Rove, the more I realize:...

Donald Trump, fresh from a Gallup poll showing him tied with former Gov. Mike Huckabee for the lead in the Republican race for the White House, is firing back at GOP strategist Karl Rove for calling Trump a "joke candidate." Trump, who says that Rove has proven himself to be out of touch with Americans, released the following statement to Newsmax: "Karl Rove is a loser. He is doing the Republican Party a great disservice by trying to stop the discussion about the president not being able to present his birth certificate to the American people – or to assure...

Republican strategist Karl Rove says President Barack Obama is taking delight in the fact that Donald Trump is pressing so hard for him to produce his birth certificate, “because that’s exactly what Obama wants conservatives to do.” Speaking to Sean Hannity Thursday on his radio show, Rove also questioned Trump’s conservative credentials. Hannity started the interview by asking Rove why he was going after Trump. “Well, I think Trump’s got a thin skin — I don’t think I’m going after Trump,” Rove said. “A guy who says that he doesn’t know what Ronald Reagan is hiding behind his smile, and...

Karl Rove appears to be in panic mode. The once sought after ‘Bush’s Brain’ or “republican strategist” is now revealing what many republicans  and conservatives don’t know–that Rove was one of the key architects behind the ‘election’ of Obama in 2008, and is secretly behind an Obama re-election in 2012.Yes, you read that right. And read the lines and between them here. Who did Karl Rove fear as a republican strategist in 2007 and 2008?  Hillary Clinton.  He knew that HRC would beat any republican candidate after eight years of Bush/Cheney/Rove. He had to knock her out so collaborated with...

Trump slams Rove! Carl Rove called Trump's candidacy a "joke" among many other disparaging remarks about him. But Trump, in his inimitable way, gave it right back. Who really is Rove? He's the "architect" who encouraged George Bush to spend like a liberal Democrat and pursue his amnesty for illegal aliens agenda to pander to the Hispanic vote. He caustically stated that Palin was too much a lightweight for national office. His counsel made Bush so unpopular that he alienated not only the conservative GOP base but the Independents, thus helping Obama win the presidency. Fox has Rove as a...

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Donald Trump fired back at Karl Rove on Tuesday for labeling his possible White House bid a “joke,” saying the one-time senior adviser to President George W. Bush “should be ashamed of himself” for the role he played in pushing an agenda that turned voters against Republicans and paved the way for the Obama presidency. Mr. Trump, the billionaire real estate developer and reality-TV-show star still weighing a 2012 race, said in an interview that the Republican brand was so tarnished after the Bush-Rove years that even “Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have beaten” President Obama in the 2008 presidential race. “Honestly,...