Yesterday, on Face the Nation, Rahm Emanuel declared that Rush Limbaugh is "the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party."
This is a useful stance for the Obama administration. As David Frum puts it: "With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence -- exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix" to the GOP.
But, in truth, Rush is just a massive shiny object that distracts our attention from the real intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party, Karl Rove.
At the same time Emanuel was on CBS anointing Limbaugh top dog, over on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos Rove was demonstrating why he is the real force and the real danger in the wounded-but-still-destructive GOP.
For starters, there is the fact that he was even on the show. This Week would never have Rush on as a panelist, but there was Rove, amiably chatting about the week's events with Stan Greenberg, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and George Will.
Then there is Rove's decidedly anti-Limbaughian approach, whereby he calmly, lucidly, and shamelessly attempts to whitewash the past and rewrite history. A history he was front and center in making.
There he was yesterday, the picture of reasonableness, trying to eviscerate Obama's proposals to get us out of the economic mess -- without ever once acknowledging that he was one of the prime architects of the mess. (Don't forget that, according to Paul O'Neill, back in 2002, when Bush was having second thoughts about a fresh round of tax cuts for the wealthy -- wondering "Didn't we already give them a break?" -- Rove urged him to "stick to principle.")
Having Karl Rove on to pontificate about the economy is like having Bernie Madoff on to offer advice about investing.
What's next? Inviting Chris Brown on to tsk-tsk about the dangers of domestic violence? Nadya Suleman to lecture about the need for family planning? Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to hold forth on corporate responsibility?
Rove has studied his Orwell and understands that "who controls the past, controls the future."
That's why we saw Rove lambasting Obama's budget deficit, conveniently skipping over the nearly $1.6 trillion added to the deficit by the administration he helped guide. Not one word about the role the massive tax cuts for the rich he championed played in creating the current economic crisis. Not a peep about the deregulation of Wall Street he held so dear.
Indeed, he tried to lay the Bush administration's fiscal legacy at the feet of "two wars, 9/11, and a recession handed to us by the previous administration."
Notice the chutzpah of sidestepping any accountability for the last eight years. And acting as if the Iraq war just happened -- and wasn't one of the prime goals of the man he was credited with being the brains of. In the Rovian universe, there is no such thing as cause and effect.
To set things right, we have to understand how they went so wrong. And that's hard to do when the truth is under assault, and the past brazenly revised.
During the panel discussion on This Week, Stephanopoulos ran a clip package from CPAC that showed Limbaugh and others repeating tired claims about Obama and "socialism." Rove jumped at the opportunity, happy to brand this over-the-top rhetoric "red meat for the hardcore Republican conservatives," the better to separate himself from the snarling pack and allow his historical revisionism to work its black magic in the background.
Karl Rove is too smart to say he wants Obama to fail. But if Obama's recovery plan doesn't work -- and, if it doesn't, it'll be because it wasn't big and bold enough -- Rove and the gang have a highly polished narrative at the ready, one that succeeds at disconnecting what Obama had to do to stimulate to economy with what happened before he took office. Big government failed, according to this narrative. Let's bring back tax cuts and deregulation.
Rove is like Topher Brink, the amoral programmer on Fox's Dollhouse whose job is to erase the memories from the minds of his charges -- and implant new ones.
Republicans have deservedly lost control of the government. And given the bankruptcy of their ideas for addressing the crisis we face, they realize their only chance to return to power is to try to change reality.
That's what makes Rove so dangerous -- his unbending commitment to derailing our understanding of how we've gotten to where we are.
That's the trouble with being rich (and with doing the morally corrupt things that make you rich in the first place); you forget that there's anyone out there who doesn't have money to leverage. Witness how Bernie Maddoff thinks it's fine, after blowing up so many little people's retirement eggs, to send out spendy gifts from his over-the-top apartment. To him, two million dollars is chump change; where to us, it's a decent retirement.
He's probably wondering why everyone's making such a fuss.
WE DON'T EXIST, to these people. We are "labor." We are "consumers" of whatever they are selling. And when we get a bit inconvenient to the rollers, our jobs, health, and ultimately our lives, are just scrapped for their bottom line.
And then we're just busted homeowners, to be moved out by the marshalls so the rich can re-sell our homes.
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Bitter? Who, me?
Is it President Obama’s huge budget deficit that some think makes him a socialist? Think about this: if we spent $1,000,000 each day beginning from day one A.D. through the present time it would equal President Obama’s budget. Shocking. Multiply that number by 4 and you get the cost of the Iraq war to date. Surprised?
But the war has made us safer right? No attacks on American soil. But the Brits fought along side us in Iraq and they’ve had a few attacks. Guess the Iraq war has nothing to do with safety - it must be something else we’re doing. Something that doesn’t cost 4x as much as the President’s budget. Wish we had the war money back now.
Is the President a socialist because he’s raising taxes for the rich? The tax code was changed 8 years ago to favor the rich. Consider the last 8 years a free ride. We had a Republican oligarchy but they're out and they'll say and do anything to get back in.
It's the SAME OLD FACES, spewing the SAME OLD THOUGHTS / WORDS each and every time.
Time to throw the cards away and start with a NEW Set of faces to call on.
Oh, and make sure the person you choose isn't corrupt and would not be in jail if he lived in another country!!
As usual, you're right, Ms. Huffington: the Democrats need to be bolder. Unfortunately, Democratic Timidity is a very hard habit to break. They need to be reminded that the voters chose them over the Republicans.
He is always buckling under pressure and allowing the Republicans to stick the Democratic Party in the eye.
We Don't need any weak leaders deciding the fate of this Country we need descerning leaders who can see through the Republican game playing and do them one better and move pass
the grid lock and get things done.
Democrats will not get a free ride, every action is being noted so that 2010 and 2012 can bring us fresh leaders who are not tainted with cowardess and a lack of integrity.
Rove has operated very "successfully" behind the scenes for years, even if his success has resulted in the marginalisation of the Republican Party and the diminishing of the USA. It will be interesting to see how successful he is when his machiavellian ways are exposed to the light of day.
having Bonnie and Clyde on to pontificate about bank savings plans.....
having the NRA on to pontificate about the importance of assault rifle safety....
having Nixon on to pontificate about the limits of Presidential powers.....
having Eichmann on to pontificate about family planning.......
having Genghis Khan on to pontificate about diplomacy.....
having Machiavelli on to pontificate about morality......
having the Pope on to pontificate about morality.....
having Osama bin Laden on to pontificate about tolerance......
having Octomom on to pontificate about birth control......
having a Republican on to pontificate about global warming.....
having Bush on to pontificate about the dangers of war with a country that poses no threat to us....
having Bush on to explain how his policies were good for the economy......
having Cheney on to pontificate about the counterproductivity of torture......
having Limbaugh or Coulter on to pontificate about the importance of truth in reporting......
Oh ok, coincidences are just that.
Let's yell and scream because of Rove. The fact is America wanted to go to war. Iraq was a threat in much more dynamic way than described in the media. Not because the media didn't report, but the threat was more complex than fits our attention span. (We like to rant more than listen.)
It may prove to be better to have cleaned out some of the middle east before the world economy crashes. There will be less of a footing for the new generation of despots to get a start.
(Yes, I do believe war is the wrong way to do it, but everything bad in this country was because of Bush. Obama isn't the saviour.
Since January 20th, it has continued to fall, about another 2,000 points, as Obama warned it would.
These facts will never be told on Faux News, but there they are.
He finally came out to announce one of his panic-hurry-hurry proclamations that the economy was going to fail unless Congress approveda rescue bailout program Bush Jr had for months.
Sound like the lead-up to Iraq to you? How about nine-eleven? Say, even Enron is the same gig!
On nine-eleven Bush Jr took off in AF1 and flew all over the country trying to find a hidey-hole big enough for him and his babysitters to fit in. He abandoned his role as president and his duty to the American people. He flew off to safety, leaving us all behind to die.
So can the accusations of Obama's complicity in our economy's failure. It is like blaming a fireman for the fire he's fighting.
They have to hang on to this base or they will have nothing. The largest voting group [and growing]] are the Independents. The Republicans are caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place as they must keep their base at the same time trying to appeal to the better educated and better informed Independents.
That's a tricky one. I venture it can't be done with any substance or intellect. So they are still sticking with the same old playbook which is a combination of dog and pony shows, image, marketing, propaganda, lying, gimmicks and media manipulation.
That is why they are so desperate for Obama to fail so that maybe voters will swing back in their direction in the next election.
Think of this. This group of cynics and power dogs are willing to destroy their country and it's people just to take back the reins of power so they can continue to pillage the Treasury. Rule by the rich and powerful is their goal.
The GOP have not and never will have any policies other than they've held for years. Unfettered Conservatism and Capitalism only has one goal and that is to have two classes the very rich and the very poor. All you have to do is listen to their rhetoric and it is the same gobbly gook they've always stated but now adding they made some mistakes they won't do again that of course will likely be true until they get back into power.
In the end the GOP will continue on as they have been doing without understanding Obama's approach has not only set them up for total failure but possibly total extinction.
But Limbaugh should be included, too. Because he, too, lies and hates and misleads millions.
Limbaugh is not an entertainer.
He is, like Rove and Ailes, a very effective propagandist. And, like them, his lies and stoking of negative emotions in his listeners, could be very dangerous. Hate speech should never be ignored.
Rove, as the neo-con puppeteer behind the rise of Bush, is directly responsible for the Bush War in Iraq and the Bush Depression.
And Limbaugh, as the man who has more than anyone else made right-wing extremism an integral part of a GOP platform.
The GOP will have a hard time shaking off the legacies of Rove and Limbaugh.