Hey Karl, Thanks

Dear Karl,

Since I'm the guy largely responsible for giving you a reputation as being very smart, then it seems appropriate that I also deliver the news that, as it turns out, you aren't too bright. Actually, I think you may be downright dumb. Yes, I know you can spout statistics and theoretical analytics and you have a grand and glorious memory. But you know what, pal, you just ain't packin' the gear we all thought you carried.

I concede that you did exhibit certain strategic skills in getting George W. Bush elected president. Finding wedge issues to divide the country, motivate extreme constituencies, and seeking that 50 plus 1 margin, however, is not how you create your beloved realignment; it's actually how you motivate political opposition and anger your fellow citizens. In your uncontrolled lust for political power to create a Republican realignment, you've actually handed over that precise dream to the Democrats. Your president and you cast such havoc across our land and around the globe that Americans were motivated to resoundingly reject your ideology and embrace Senator Obama's.

Face it, Karl; the destruction of the GOP is your fault. Oh sure, your president gets a bit of the blame, but pal, you are the man. You are the guy who advised him to look out the window of Air Force One as he flew over New Orleans. He seemed so sensitive staring down at the suffering from 10,000 feet. Didn't you also come up with the whole plan to privatize Social Security and give the accounts to Wall Street, a notion that even divided your own party? Not hard to divine what the status of everyone's Social Security account would be today if you had gotten away with that one.

And I don't care how many times you deny it; we both know you were the guy who came up with the "Mission Accomplished" theatrics on the aircraft carrier. Now that was brilliant. I believe what you always told us pinhead Texas reporters was that image trumps substance. I wonder if that little incident has taught you differently. See, the image is pretty powerful at the outset but facts are damnable things, Karl. You just can't get around them.

Your big mistake was that you totally lacked vision. You get politics pretty well but you don't understand that there is a humanity that defines Americans. We want to cooperate with the world and we want to be a part of helping our fellow citizens enjoy what our country offers. You and your party see people in a ditch and you blame them for their failures as if capitalism were a perfect system. Given what your father and your family went through you ought to know that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things just don't work out. But you couldn't allow for that. You pushed your party on down the road past the casualties your policies left in the ditch.

I confess I loved how you used language. Any writer is going to be drawn to a thinker who can look at the relaxation of pollution controls and call it a "Blue Skies Initiative" or the clever way your president's administration authorized clear-cutting and renamed it "The Healthy Forests Initiative." That's not genius, though; it's evil. And stupid. Because even a patient and forgiving people like those of us in America have a limit of tolerance. And we ran out of it with you and the GOP.

I can't see how you are anything but embarrassed now. You can wish and hope all you want and travel around the country giving your $60,000 historical revisionist speeches trying to change the legacy of Mr. Bush, but the two of you are doomed. President Bush, no matter how hard you try to make it otherwise, will be remembered as an American catastrophe. And you were his enabler. You told him how 9/11 could be used as a method to increase his popularity and blame Al Qaeda and you distorted every fact associated with that day for sheer political expediency. Hell, you were even more concerned about Mr. Bush's image than you were the families of the fallen so you kept your client away from any funerals of Iraq casualties. Worse, the administration didn't even allow pictures of the caskets of our fallen soldiers upon their return. When our children started to die in your geo-political folly, you and your president tried to hide it from us. What kind of people are you?

Everything with you was about power; political power. Let's get more, more, more, and we can do anything we want. Well, you did whatever you wanted and that has created what is likely to become a lasting Democratic majority, even realignment. Our country has a sensibility and thoughtfulness you were never able to abide. With us or against us didn't work out. Americans don't make those kinds of choices. They choose what is right and, even though it took a long time, they realized how wrong you have been and how absurd has been your advice to the White House.

See, here's the deal, Karl buddy, government is about service not power. If it doesn't serve the people, they reject it. When Katrina happened, the country saw what you and W had been doing. You used every institution of government to acquire more political power. All of the institutional knowledge from experienced employees and all of the non-believers were kicked out. Government agencies became largely dysfunctional and Katrina was the first time the covers were pulled back to show what you had done. All of that suffering, too, will be your legacy.

If you were so smart, you would have seen that politics, politics, politics, and no policy were bound to lead to your destruction. The only policies you and your people instituted were those that eliminated regulation and allowed near chaos to unfold. I'd put your pal Phil Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act under that heading.....the law that led to unregulated credit derivative swaps and has, consequently, led us to an economic precipice. I don't want to bring up Enron, but, what the hell? Remember how Gramm got energy futures trading deregulated and all of those people lost their investments but Bush got energy policy advice and campaign cash from Enron CEO Ken Lay and all of the other big dawgs on the bayou?

The truth is, Karl, every damned thing you did was wrong. It was for the wrong reasons and led to the wrong results. And half of what you did was based on lies. You still seem to think that if you lie loudly and long enough you will sound authoritative and people will begin to believe. But now not even Bill O'Reilly is buying your crap any more. Look back at your decisions and then try to tell yourself Bush and you are not responsible for the current crisis that threatens our very republic. It's all yours. We may have the leader now who can turn this around but it will be difficult. At a minimum, you are no longer a meaningful voice in the American political discourse and that gives me more hope.

Unlike you, I'm willing to admit a mistake and my big one was that I was one of the people who suggested you had genius. Man, was I wrong. You are a damned idiot. You've destroyed your party and almost destroyed your country and you still walk around a free man. I guess that's a testament to the forgiveness of the people you have harmed. I don't know. Anyway, like it or not, Bush's Brain as a moniker will follow you to your grave and it will be in your obituary. And as the evidence indicates, neither you nor he was very bright. Historians will get that right even if lowly journalists like me never did.

Like the preacher said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I reckon that means you have some things to worry about.

Cheers,
Moore

Comments

[dbraun]

Excellent commentary, Jim.

I've often felt that the things that make people like Rove seem so brilliant is but the shallow mindset of those who so willing follow. Even now - though their ranks have shrunk (I hope) considerably.

[LostCause]

50 + 10% (blacks) = President Obama! Worked like a charm, Karl!

[PT6]

"Old-Style Rove" politicians are trying to find a future for themselves in a dramatically changed world!

"Technology" is now counteracting "Rove Politics" including:

1. Easy access to old speeches on video for comparison
2. Truth squads
3. Obama's Community Organizing via internet
4. Tough blogging by Democrats
5. Participation by millions of Democrats on sites like Huffington Post

All of these have never appeared before and never played such a large role in an election.

In short "old-style dirty" politics have lost to a "new" kind of inclusive and technology driven politics!

[OhReallySheSaid]

Rove's architecture of doom was flawed from the start. You also give the cretan way too much credit for his never deserved success. If Gore had taken care of his neighbors in Tennessee and gotten about 50,000 more votes there in 2000, there never would have been a Florida and Bush would be a goofy asterisk of unqualified presidential contenders that were rightfully defeated. Kerry never got over the shock that no matter how truthful your war record is, there's always a scoundrel whose willing to call you a liar. Rove's main accomplishment then was to create a grassroot voter mobilization that was copied with laser precision this year by our side, or more appropriately, the good guys.

Arrogance and hubris are the lubricating oil that eventually cleanses us of these spotlight whores who believe their own press releases, and so now Rove can join Greenspan upon the heap of stupefying deceitful and worse, just plain dumb goofballs whose "brilliance" have not only just about sunk the republic, but should teach us that people who keep reminding us how smart and clever they are usually aren't.

[Billie]

There will always be rattlesnakes like Rove in the world of politics.

For while, with obama, it'll be nice to have a break from rove-types fouling the white house.

[Wilburrr]

Excellent article. If Rove is the genius that neo-cons claim, he would have had a stronger candidate lined up to succeed Bush. The "permanent conservative majority" in Congress would have had better material from which to campaign. He will end up as a curiously incompetent felon who tried to sidetrack the country but the buck really stops with George W Bush.

[AlisonCarnie]

Albeit, nothing can undo the predatory evilness of Karl Rove and his henchmen and women ... the casualities ... people around the world and their countries, I truly believe that it isn't always the choices people make that I remember ... it is how they handle those choices ... Mr. Moore you can't unring a bell but you can make me remember the newer notes. Thank you for your insightful prose.

[Boxxphotog]

The theory. The 'ah-ha' came when Dick Cheney endorsed McCain. Tuesday, John got his pink slip.

The calculated timing of Cheney's "death-nail" endorsement was the give-away. See, up to then, I too was baffled, offended, alarmed by the Palin pick. Assininny from Alaska. But THAT day, November 1st, I mused, it makes sense now.

If we believe the anti-McCain rhetoric within his party then Schmidt and Rove can retain their crowns as brilliant strategists. Only this time the target, their man. Party elites were already on record with distastes for him. Nobody that counted wanted him as President. One public denouncement after another - Brooks, Parker, Powell, Will... WILL!. While the wiseguys ran overt maneuvers from Atwater's familiar playbook they held a genius reverse play - trick us and the old man with the Palin effect, the biggest political cartoon since Perot.

Everything we've come to know about Mrs. Palin's shortcomings was known. Do we really believe her "vetting" began on our national stage. Nope. Press hated being locked out but S+R knew she would ably perform her own un-doing.

Bravo to both campaigns for execution. Dems for Obama's Win, Repubs for putting the old man out to pasture (TG!) Palin had one job and she delivered. Go down for JM. Sadly, nobody told her she got punk'd.

To everybody who played key roles getting America to this day, thanks. We'd almost forgotten that the sun comes out after the storm. Let the healing begin.

[widollar]

Excellent Post and your comments are right on target!

[bjammin]

Very VERY good article, James. The Bush years already seem like a bad nightmare that's coming to an end (and the Shrub isn't even out of office yet). I wonder of Rove and Bush have the ability to know their own true selves in the dark hours before morning when the demons come. It would be fitting. But unlikely.

[myfatherschild]

Thanks Mr. Moore,

Your article is brilliant and well written. Thank you for recognising your error and being courageous enough to say so. Thank you for calling out, quite articulately, all that I feel and more. Thank you because you have written and exposed the greed, power, motives and morals of the corrupt men who have nearly brought our beloved America to her knees. Thanks, because by your being so forthwright, you have made me, as an American, realise that now, more than ever, all of us who have been victimized by these rogues, will have to stand tall and strong together, as a race, as a people and as a country so that we can indeed remain the United States of America.

[Shazzbot]

Preaching to the choir ... I don't believe Karl Rove would read this; and even if he did, his self-awareness is so skewed that he couldn't possibly see himself in anything that you wrote.

I do believe he is evil, though. As Hannah Arendt wrote (paraphrased): true evil is utterly banal; Karl Rove doesn't have horns or flames jutting from his eyes or a forked tongue or tail. He simply did everything you list here, and more.

[deeppeace]

"At a minimum, you are no longer a meaningful voice in the American political discourse and that gives me more hope."

One small problem: Rove won't go away until he is either in jail or totally, personally discredited (this loss is nowhere near big enough to disable him).

Treating a virus with antibiotics doesn't work. It just makes the virus smarter and more resistant the next time it appears.

[jthill]

... or, in short, someone finally went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

[BeasleysMom]

Americans frequently have short memories, but this is information that we most not ever forget. We must be viglilant that this never happens again in this country. We must all stand up against the evil that permitted this to happen. When we see, hear or read lies, we must step forward and expose them for what they are.The internet will make this easier. Now, there will always be a place to speak up so that all can know the truth. Do not hesitate. Speak up and speak out when needed! Exercise your first amendment rights until your all tired out and then get up and start again.

[insanityfollows]

Thank you, Moore. If there is one good thing that came out of all of this, it is that we have all (hopefully) realized that no matter how peaceful and prosperous things are, we cannot afford to take our eyes off the prize-the preservation of our government and its constitution. News was for geeks, everyone was doing pretty well in the nineties, and people didn't see this coming. Everyone was astonished in 94 when the GOP showed up with its Contract for America. I was completely alarmed, as I saw it as a precursor for what, sadly, came to pass. I remember that same year seeing that as a warning sign that the GOP was seriously moving in for power. Not just majority power, POWER power. I remember that same year seeing a bus, yes, a bus, that was painted all over and was devoted to the "murder" of Vince Foster. A whole movement traveling across the country to try to bring the Clintons down over a man who committed suicide. I suddenly realized the vast right wing conspiracy was real. The whole thing damn near succeeded completely. I am so glad that Rove and all of them are going down. Now, the challenge is, to keep them down. We cannot ever afford for this to happen again.