An interesting morning, as I do my morning routine. A slower news day than some, so the ‘sphere has some time to wallow in Karl Rove’s departure on 8/30 from the WH.
The amount of leftist vitriol being pointed to at the departure of Karl Rove by Democrats is revealing, not so much about Republicans as about Democrats. The clear reasoning , if one can call it that, is the idea that he could not possibly have been as successful as he was through all of his career, from Texas, going forward, without cheating. In their minds, there is no way he could have done what he did, in a legit fashion. Thus all the investigations and whatnot.
That point speaks very loudly to me, this morning, as I read some of the commentary surrounding this event. It does so, because in the reading, one gets the impression that when Democrats make the judgment that he could not have been successful as he was without cheating, they speak from personal experience. It’s the only way they have ever won, how could anyone else win legitimately, particularly over Democrats? Or so the mindset goes, anyway.
As you might expect, there are number of excuses floating around that don’t really mesh very well, that attempt to explain leftist anger toward Rove, who has become the Democrat’s Moby Dick. Ever since Texas, they’ve been trying to nail him on one thing or another, and it never seems to pan out. Maybe the reason is that there’s nothing there, but you’d never get the Democrats to admit that.
Leaving aside the idea that the Democrats have been spending large amounts of tax money, and time which should have been spent on other things, on trying to bolster their political future by eliminating a White House aide, you would think that the democrats would eventually get the message that what they’ve been trying to do for over a decade to the man, now, simply isn’t going to happen. You’d think they’d moveon. But, perhaps, Ahab needs to get that whale. The narrative that they have built up around the man, far exceeds all reason and reality, but they can rid themselves of it, because it’s the only thing they’ve got, anymore.
A number of people charge him with being partisan, spitting vitriol, etc, and of course the indication from Democrats is, that this is unique amongst white house aides. Apparently, they don’t think James Carville was a White House aide. It’s a little discrepancies like that that let you know the Democrats are not telling you the whole truth, and perhaps are not even telling themselves the whole truth.
In the end, what this amounts to, is not how grove arrived at the position he is in today, that of a successful political operative, but that he was, in fact, successful, that generates so much leftist anger.
But was it really the success of Mr. Rove, or was it the success of the ideas that he helped to champion? I ask, because it seems to me that the democrats are spending far too much time giving far too much credit to people working behind the scenes. In short, their entire philosophy appears to be based on the concept that ideas don’t matter, salesmanship does. Clearly, they hold Rove to be, if nothing else, the consummate salesman. Admittedly, he is, perhaps, a pretty good one. Such ability is usually listed among those who are perceived to have leadership skills.
But what if the whole thing is about ideas? What if , as I’ve been saying for years, ideas matter, more than who is expressing them?
I raised the question the other day, about who it is that the Democrats are going to blame for Mr. Bush’s successes now that Rove is no longer in the picture. The Democrats have been screaming that the White House was really being run by Mr. Rove. This matched their vision of Mr. Bush has a witless figurehead. If nothing else, the White House will be well served by Mr. Rove departing, because Mr. Bush’s continued successes, without Mr. Rove in the picture, can only lead to the conclusion that the Democrats have been targeting the wrong person all these years. Not that the Democrat leadership, the press, or most of the Leftie Blogs would never admit such a thing, mind you, but I suspect it will not pass unnoticed amongst the electorate.
At which point, three things will happen.
* Mr. Bush’s legacy will have been secured
* People will start paying attention to the ideas that with the guidance of Mr. Rove and others, he has been expressing… and implementing, for a decade and longer.
* A huge boost will be given to anyone running against the Democrats.