Joe Conason: The Twisted Legacy Of Rove

[Hissyspit]

http://www.observer.com/2007/twisted-legacy-rove

The Twisted Legacy of Rove
by Joe Conason

Published: August 14, 2007

Until the ethical and legal questions that trail Karl Rove are answered, his own explanation for abruptly departing the White House must suffice. Perhaps he is the first political operative in history to flee Washington because he actually wants to spend more time with his family.

Why he is leaving matters much less, however, than the opportunities he squandered and the wreckage he leaves behind.

Inevitably, thousands of words will be devoted to his electoral achievements and his ultimate failure to “realign” American politics under right-wing Republican domination—including a book he apparently plans to write. His vision of a new political dispensation proved to be more grandiose than grand. His partisan edifice is fallen into rubble. As “the architect,” he turned out to be more journeyman than genius.

- snip -

“We can go to the country on this issue,” he predicted in January 2002, “because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America’s military might and thereby protecting America.” That bland description scarcely did justice to the campaign that ensued. The viciousness on the Republican side was typified by an ad campaign that led to the defeat of Senator Max Cleland, a triple-amputee Army veteran and bronze and silver star winner, by painting him as a stooge of terrorism.

Relishing those tactics, Mr. Rove could not have cared less about their effect on national morale and unity. Besides, he was already planning to win the upcoming presidential contest the same way. He orchestrated the politicization of the 9/11 attacks in advertising and at the New York convention, punctuated by dark warnings that a Democratic victory would signal weakness to the lurking terrorists.

MORE