Karl Who?
This is the most common one-liner seen on liberal blogs these days after the sound defeat of the Republicans in the US elections on Tuesday. Yet, the rumors of Karl Rove's political demise seem a bit premature. While I'm as happy as the next geezer to see the Republican lose, I will not make the mistake of underestimating Karl Rove's evil genius. Let's face it the guy had
nothing to work with. Bush with his anti-Midas touch (everything Bush touches consistently turns into turd) left the mighty Karl with grasping for even a shred of good news, a tiny little sign of competent governance and yet there was literally nothing to hang onto. They tried economy (sorry, Bush made more Americans slip into poverty than any other president in recent memory), they tried terrorism (sorry, no Bin-Laden in orange jumpsuit means no cigar there), they even tried to spin the Iraq mess as somehow good news for the Republicans (what??!!) and none of it caught on. Subsequently came the character assaults against Democratic candidates, digging up dirty laundry or simply plainly making stuff up. The Rovean machine has no ethical limit. It will descend into a Goebbels level of filth and lie in pursuit of its goals. There is little reason to think that this smear factory is about to shut down. Karl may even get dismissed by Bush but the ugly legacy of Rove which began long before September 11, 2001 will be with us for a long time to come. Next time you hear a political attack mounted on the basis of "moral values" of the opponent or his/her "lack of family values" or his/her "godlessness" be sure that the campaign was designed straight from page 2 of Karl Rove's "Political Slime 101" guidebook. As long as people keep voting against candidates rather than for them smear campaigning is here to stay and only bound to get more extreme as time goes on.
