Karl Rove Tells Rand Paul To Pipe Down About The Lewinsky Stuff
Source: TPM
CATHERINE THOMPSON – FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 11:57 AM EST
Bashing former President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal isn't a good strategy to use if Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to position himself as a presidential contender in 2016, according to election oracle Karl Rove.
The veteran Republican strategist said Tuesday in an appearance on Fox News that Paul needs to shelve personal ambition and focus on a bigger message if he wants to field a viable campaign. "Frankly, Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda for the future of the country," he said. Paul has lobbed a series of attacks at Clinton in recent weeks, ranging from calling him a "serial philanderer" to suggesting Democrats return money they raised with his help.
Rove said the Kentucky Republican ought to focus on strengthening his "skills" as a candidate, rather than on a White House affair that's already 15 years old. "I'm not certain again that beating up on Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky is a particularly good thing to strengthen your skills for the 2016 contest," he said.
Even if Rove thinks 2016 contenders should be above such tactics, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the Lewinsky scandal is definitely fair game if Hillary Clinton decides to run for president.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/karl_rove_rand_paul_clinton_bashing
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's his guy.
There it is...
Rove's new nickname: The Election Oracle!!!
. . . Karl Rove is a real professional. Of course, his profession makes him an occupational liar. For lurking Freepers who think I'm just being partisan, so is James Carville. In addition to political campaign consultants, who are just a special class of public relations agents, prime examples of occupational liars are salesmen, lawyers and politicians (who, perhaps not coincidentally, usually start out as lawyers).
The point is that the Rover is an exceptionally good occupational liar, or EGOL. After all, he made Bush the Frat Boy into an attractive enough candidate to get him within stealing distance of two national elections. That was no easy task.
The first part of being an EGOL is to know what sells and what's an what doesn't. The Monica Lewinsky caper was never a good selling point in the first place. How many of us knew that President Clinton (another EGOL) was just asking for trouble when he said "I didn't have sex with that woman" instead of "On the advise of an attorney, I have nothing to say about that topic"? The problem with the matter of Mr. Clinton and she and his fellow consenting adult, Ms. Lewinsky, did together, was that nobody cared except ESAPPs (exceptionally stupid and partisan politicians). Fifteen years later, the only people who still care are ESAPPs like Senator Paul.
Another reason the Lewinsky caper doesn't sell is that there are better examples of politicians who don't level with the American people than Bill Clinton or even Chris Christie. For example, Richard ("I am not a crook" Nixon, George W. (Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction) Bush and his sidekick, former Vice Premier Cheney were much bigger liars than Clinton, and lied about matters of greater consequence than a tacky blow job.
What are the Republicans to do in 2016? One might think that they could point to President Obama. but they can't do that. It's not that President Obama hasn't lied to us. This is the same president who tells us that mass surveillance of American citizens saves lives and isn't a violation of the Fourth Amendment and that the TPP and TTIP will create jobs. Unfortunately, any Republican president will say the same thing and it won't be any more truthful than saying he threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River. All they can do is holler "Benghazi," but that is even less attractive as a selling point that what down in the Oval Office closet in the nineties. Well, no one ever accused Darrell Issa of being an EGOL. It's a rare man who can be both an EGOL and an ESAPP at the same time.
Rove has been around long enough to know the idiocy of Rand's strategy. Attacking a female candidate by bringing up her husband's misdeeds is stupid. It will piss off women, we know that wives are not an appendage of their husbands.
Let Rand carry on, he's digging his own grave.
