Karl Rove, Homosexuality, Political Tricks & The Upcoming Election.

[David Zephyr]

I confess. I am close to chewing my nails with anxiety about Karl Rove and why he is so, so quiet just three weeks away from the national mid-term elections with control of the House and Senate at stake. Like everyone here, I want to win. And this time, it really looks good for us and our candidates are performing like champions. But...

I finally read "The Architect" by Wayne Slater and James Moore and there are two things that, yes, worry me:

1.) Karl Rove doesn't sit out an election cycle and watch his clients lose. He always has a powerfully constructed campaign strategy, has his soldiers lined up with timetabled actions, his missiles out of the silo, and a bomb or two to drop against the opposition right at election day.

2.) Karl Rove's "bombs" have almost always been the cultural, political and religious explosive of homophobia. From his early days in Texas, homophobia has been his weapon of choice and he never fails to use it.

Rove had fliers depicting black and white homosexual men engaged in sex placed on the windshields of cars in church parking lots throughout Texas just before election day. In Alabama, Rove used right wing law students to trigger suggestions that his client's opponent was homosexual knowing they'd spread the word in their hometowns. Before the 2004 election, Rove was engineering anti-gay marriage initiatives to coincide with the plebiscite.

When Mark Foley's page scandal first broke as news, a few DU'ers here posted immediately that they thought that perhaps the "story" was orchestrated by Rove. I thought at the time that they were tin-foiling. I mean it hurts Republicans, not Democrats, right? It looks like it's going to hurt even Hastert, right? Yet, there is Bush standing shoulder to shoulder with Hastert for the whole world to see.

And guess what: it's another homosexual "bomb" dropped just before the election and ABC swears that they got the story from a Republican source. A Republican source? And didn't Rove's comment about the Foley episode ("It complicates things") sound just a little to rehearsed?

What is Karl Rove up to? He still has some Ace up his sleeve. I know it.

Someone send over the sedative for me. Things are looking too good to be true.

[waiting for hope]

1. I really would hate to give him that

much power over a situation like Foley - that's been going on for years and I think the basic thought premise was that they were arrogant and beyond hubris, they wanted to keep the seat more than anything. I can't imagine Rove just sitting on his hands waiting for the right time to spring open Foleygate....maybe I'm being naive.

[LSparkle]

2. I can't see any way the Foley scandal can hurt the Dems

Am I missing something? It seems like we were kept out of the loop on the problem -- intentionally by the Thugs -- and no Dem has thus far been implicated. Our party is much more comfortable in its own skin -- our gay members are OUT, not closeted. I'm wondering if Roverat has finally run out of ammo or is afraid of getting TOO hands-on (ha!) with this issue, considering things I've heard and read about his own personal life ... ?

[liberal N proud]

3. Here is one thing that has his name all over it...

Blackwell to decide if opponent Strickland stays in the race

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x452783

[SteppingRazor]

4. Y'know, I continue to not buy this argument...

First, Karl Rove's just not that impressive. He failed in his early career, losing to batshit-insane fundie Roy Moore in Alabama, then won a few very dubious elections in Texas before losing the 2000 presidential campaign and, quite possibly, losing again in 2004.

Basically, he's only ever won a legitimate victory in Texas statewide races.


And if he plays any homophobic card at this point, it'll just be seen as tit-for-tat for Foley.

So, here. Have some sedatives :)

[AndyA]

5. I know how you feel. I too question what is going on at this point.

The thing that keeps coming back to me is this: No matter how carefully orchestrated an event is, there's always going to be someone who messes up. They will say or do something that raises suspicion, or flub up so bad the secret is revealed to all.

It could very well be Rove hadn't planned for this information about Foley to come out at this point. After all, everyone in the Republican circle has known about him and his attraction to male pages for years. It remained a secret in 2004, so perhaps Rove hoped it would remain a secret through the mid-term elections as well.

I think it could very well be a variety of things from various sources, all of which were out of Rove's control. The report about Iraq, and how our presence there is making terrorism worse. The reports about Condi ignoring the warnings prior to 9/11. The Foley scandal. Ney pleading guilty. The Abramoff story, and how it continues to evolve and demonstrate how corrupt the Republican leaders truly are.

Then there's the people who are finally waking up, realizing their rights are being taken away from them, especially after passage of the detainee bill.

Now there are rumors of another Republican taking male pages on a camping trip and accusations of possible inappropriate behavior.

Add that to Bush's falling poll numbers, Cheney's bad poll numbers, the calls for Rumsfeld to resign from many respected people, and you have a snowball rolling downhill.

I think it's just too much for Rove to control this time. A few things he didn't plan on got out, and the rest is history.

I won't believe it until the new Congress is in session, with a Dem majority in place, though. We have to be ready for anything from these crooks.

Edit: for clarity.

[movonne]

6. I think that he is so busy with trying to minimize all the fallout in

these scandals, and Iraq occupation going bad..

[KurtNYC]

7. Karl Rove meets Daryl Drove (the Dem's Rove)

If one was a freeper and paranoid, one might well imagine that Daryl Drove (aka "Pelosi's Brain") was orchestrating the events of the weeks leading into this election: Woodward turned on the Bushies, the NIE is released/leaked, other pentagon leaks undermine the WH version of the Iraq occupation. Foley is exposed in spite of the coordinated efforts of the GOP leadership to keep him in the race.

How will the GOP ever win against the omnipotent and crafty Daryl Drove!?

(seriously though I think Rove gets too much credit -- Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 and he lost in 2004 in Ohio. SCOTUS bailed Rove out in 2000, Blackwell et al in 2004)

[Tyo]

8. Rove's own sexuality has been a matter of speculation for years

He might just be finding it convenient to lie low right now. I think this whole gay thing coupled with revelations that they sucked up to the Christian right for votes while mocking them behind their back is something that they are not going to be able to get a handle on. Sucks to be a Rethug right now.

[colonel odis]

9. good point. jeff gannon wasn't going to the white house to

rehearse press conference questions, you know.