But in LBN ROVE is predicting Repuke holding both houses. STONE is a pre-ROVE ROVE, learned dirty tricks under the NIXON flying monkeys, and even after his own downfall under Bob DOLE, whose campaign he steered towards "family values" while he and wife Nydia were exposed as advertising for swinging couples, he was still at it, being a leader of the Shrub thugs who stormed the elections office in Florida in 2000, and he is suspected of being behind the set-up of Dan RATHER.
Transcript from the bowtie-boy circus.
So: Is STONE 1) telling it like it is, 2) scaring the Repukes into turning-out, or 3) setting us up as we have been set up so many times before?
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15303016 /
Roger, welcome.
If anyone would know, it‘s you. Do you think Karl Rove knows something that we don‘t know?
ROGER STONE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you know, I know Karl Rove very well. I‘ve know him since college. He is a very clever fellow, he‘s a very smart fellow, but I think this is whistling past the graveyard.
I‘m calling in today from Cleveland, and out here on business. And I must tell you, I‘m at ground zero of the Republican meltdown. I mean, between Congressman Bob Ney pleading guilty, Bob Taft‘s crony who managed state funds on trial here in Columbus, and Bob Taft presiding over the loss of 250,000 jobs in three years, the Republican party was already in a meltdown before Mark Foley came along, and the poor guy who suffers here I think is Mike DeWine.
CARLSON: That‘s—that‘s the way it seems. A front page “New York Times” piece today saying the Republican Party is all but written off.
DeWine‘s seat, unusual to see an incumbent written off like that. But it appears he‘s going to lose.
But back to Karl Rove for a sec, Rove is saying this—I‘ve heard him personally say it, that he believes Republicans are going to hold on to the House and the Senate. He‘s going to be proved right or wrong in three weeks. Why would he, one of the smartest people in politics, be telling people something that if it‘s wrong would be obvious to everyone that‘s wrong really soon?
STONE: Because it‘s message discipline. Karl‘s a very disciplined master of this particular game.
You certainly don‘t say to your own troop—you don‘t say to everybody who is working overtime to try to get Republicans, even moderate Republicans disenchanted with the war, or Evangelical Christians disgusted by the Mark Foley matter to come back and vote. Right now Republican vote is suppressed around the country. You don‘t dispirit your people by announcing, you know, I think we‘re in trouble in two weeks and we could lose both houses of the Congress.
Karl is far too disciplined for that. He‘s doing his job by remaining upbeat. But, I mean, any objective observer would have to look at these numbers across the country, Clay Shaw in Florida, you know, and numerous races that were thought to be leaning Republican now contentious.
CARLSON: Yes. I completely agree. I think you‘re absolutely right.
Interesting, though, that the Republicans, by the end of all this, it looks like they‘ll have about a $55 million advantage over the Democrats. Doesn‘t this kind of put to rest once and for all the lie, the myth that everyone repeats every season, that money is everything? You can have more money and still lose.
STONE: Well, what you‘re talking about is driving a yacht into a tsunami. It may be a very expensive yacht, but there‘s a tsunami coming. And I think that—that money at this point doesn‘t matter.
The Democrats are competitive on money. As long as Democrats have enough money to communicate in this atmosphere, they don‘t need to outspend the Republicans to win. They just have to spend their money wisely. And you‘re seeing more and more Democrats become competitive in races around the country where that shouldn‘t be the case.
CARLSON: Is there any scenario that you have heard of or have thought about for Republicans holding the House of Representatives?
STONE: Well, first of all, I think we should recognize that in politics two and a half weeks is a lifetime. And an international crisis, god forbid, terrorist attack on the country, or some new scandal, you know, maybe Harry Reid‘s land problems are more extensive than we think. I mean, you don‘t know what‘s going to happen in two and a half weeks, but if—as Nixon said the night of the 1960 election, “If the trend continues, I will lose.”
I think we are about to lose.
CARLSON: And what happened to Richard Nixon in 1960?
STONE: Well, he was very narrowly defeated.
CARLSON: He lost.
STONE: Or the election was stolen from him.
CARLSON: Right.
STONE: One—one or another. I don‘t expect this to be a photo finish, though. I just think that—you know, that there is—you know, there‘s a tsunami coming, as I say.
CARLSON: Roger Stone, one of the smartest people in politics.
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