Brent Budowsky: Democrats Need a Karl Rove

[Caro]

From The Hill’s Pundits Blog:

Democrats Need a Karl Rove

Brent Budowsky

What follows here is an op-ed I wrote for The Hill newspaper today that makes the case for Democrats to adopt a conviction politics of principle, courage and tenacity.

The Bush-Rove vision is so daring it is breathtaking.

George Bush and Karl Rove seek one-party domination of American politics, with executive domination over the legislative and judicial branches of American government…

Posing the choice as submitting to Big Brother or being exterminated by mushroom clouds, they have pummeled the republic for six years with a non-stop, 24/7 propaganda campaign of fearmongering that is unprecedented in American history.

George Bush is a lame duck? With an iron will Bush negated the 2006 election by pushing through an escalation of the Iraq war, expanded executive powers over Congress and new powers for foreign and domestic surveillance…

Democrats lost in 2000, 2002 and 2004. They finally won in 2006 and immediately began surrendering their authority, unable to resist one of the most unpopular presidents in history, with the predictable result that the Democratic Congress is one of the most unpopular in history.

Democrats need a Karl Rove, someone who can outline a grand vision and pursue it with the toughness, tenacity, courage, fearlessness and will to win that Rove possesses…

A Democratic Rove would know that it is not enough to oppose the falsehoods; it is now imperative to trust the people with the truth. For Democrats: no more surrenders, no more fear, no more retreats, no more maneuvers.

Democrats represent a majority of the country, with a majority in the Congress. If they fight with the focus and determination of Bush and Rove, they will win a victory worthy of Kennedy and Roosevelt.

Budowsky serves on the Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit and is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service. He handled intelligence issues for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was originally passed, and was legislative director to Bill Alexander, then the chief deputy whip of the House. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at [e-mail].

Click the title, above, to read more and to post a comment that may be read by your congressman and senators!

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

The excerpt above is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible.

[Richardo]

1. I beg to differ - Rove is a shitweasel

Dems don't need that.

[ixion]

2. No, what we need is a restoration of the Republic, and lots and lots of TRUTH

Not more spin.

[hobbit709]

3. "principle, courage "

Those are two words I would never use in referring to roverboy.

[liberal N proud]

4. Rove is a criminal as most republicans are

It is acceptable for the Republicans to allow the criminal acts Rove used to gain the domination they have enjoyed.

Democrats have true morals and don't lower themselves to the gutter with people like Rove, Cheney and bu$h.

[frazzled]

5. God forbid ...

The day we have a charlatan like Karl Rove mixing politics and policy in the White House and using divide and conquer strategies to split the nation, just to win elections, will be the day I cede my Democratic Party membership ... after 36 years.

[bigtree]

6. he's run the republican party into the ground

all the slobbering over principals and values the slime Rove supposedly had is sickening and strange

[Beelzebud]

7. So democrats just need to be dishonest to win?

No thanks.

I'd rather they just win by standing up for the middle class, for once.

[Lex]

8. Rove has designed the demise of the Republican party.

That writer should check the polls and Americans' attitude toward Repubs.

[sharp_stick]

9. The day the Democratic Party starts to run like Republicans

is the day I leave. Although I have my favorite, I can and will put up with, and vote for, any Democratic nominee for President without whining.

I will however never hold with people that consider KKKarl Rove's tactics admirable in any way shape or form. That asshole should be in prison, not on a lucrative speaking tour.

[deminks]

10. My mother used to say "Two wrongs don't make a right".

and I believed her.

[karynnj]

18. I heard that from my parents as well

and I still believe it.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

11. Sorry - but anyone who could get Dumbya "selected" twice is a genius.

Bush is SUCH a moron that anyone would could get the number of people to vote for him is pretty capable.

In addition, to be able to steal both Prez. elections by cowing the media, putting in key Secretaries of State/Election personnel, etc is also quite a feat.

The problem was is that Rove's forte was NOT in governing. In additon, people eventually catch on to the bullshit.

Rove has helped to make many, many people very wealthy - especially the Bushes, Cheney, all the people connected to big oil and/or defense contractors. Those people look like they're going to get away with raping this country. Most of them could care less if they're hated as long as they have the money.

[ProSense]

14. No,

a criminal!

[karynnj]

19. AMEN -

a criminal with many accomplices.

[Cha]

24. You're wrong..rove is a,

no boundaries, thief and architect of death. His big snout is going to hit the wall @ 100 miles an hour and his so-called "genius" with it.

rove would have been in strong competition with goebbles for hitler's ear when they were throwin' the screws to Germany.. We all know how those "geniuses" turned out.

[C_U_L8R]

12. No we don't.

We need GOOD strategists.

Rove won a few battles but he lost the war.

[gasperc]

13. Progressivism: Protection and empowerment

Consumer, safety environmental protection
public school, transparent government, empowerment

They need to speak this loudly and clearly

[TankLV]

15. OK People - you're not getting it at all.

Yes - we don't need or want a vile person JUST LIKE Rove - with his lies, criminality and all the rest of his duplicitous and illegal aspects.

What the author is saying is we need a RUTHLESS PARTISAN individual who is willing to take the fight for WHAT WE HOLD DEAR to a much higher level - to fight ruthlessly and not be willing to accept defeat. And to DEFEAT once and for all the REPUKES and their vile desires to RUIN OUR COUNTRY and WAY OF LIFE and to return our country to what it was under FDR. To further our IDEALS and goals with a conviction and ruthlessness and zeal that so far I certainly haven't seen.

And, yes, to insure that OUR party and IDEALS is the ONLY and PREEMINENT force in politics. And to insure we are way ahead of the curve on issues and not merely reacting - badly - to the circumstances until AFTER the damage is done.

I wholly support that and say that it's about fucking time and WAY overdue...

[karynnj]

16. No, we need an ANTI-ROVE who can destroy any future Rove's

ability to disseminate lies. This man is completely wrong on this:

"Democrats need a Karl Rove, someone who can outline a grand vision and pursue it with the toughness, tenacity, courage, fearlessness and will to win that Rove possesses… "

This is not what Rove did - others defined the agenda - Rove simply used any method, including very slimy ones to win. If we did not have a complicit media, it wouldn't have worked. For example, the media knew within days that the SBVT stuff included a huge number of lies and that they could be linked to Bush. Even as recently as 2000, this would have backfired - as a significant part of the media called "FOUL". Think what this does going forward. Kerry is a war hero with almost 4 decades i the public eye where he has been a very clean politician. Yet, the cost of running has been that every aspect of his life has been smeared. To a person, for whom honor, integrity and reputation are clearly important, this is a very steep cost - and it is to his credit that he continues to fight for what he believes in in spite of all of this.

I know I certainly do not want to volunteer for a Democratic campaign that would play so loose with truth to do this to someone else. It is immoral and despicable.

[MODemocrat]

17. Democrats do not need a Carl Rove clone

He's just a tub of crap. That's how he was so good at spreading the dirty lies every day...the psychopath.:evilfrown: :puke:

[Caro]

20. Many of you missed the point here.

Brent isn't advocating the slimy part of Rove's tactics. He's advocating having a long-term vision, fighting for it, and refusing to lose sight of the goal.

Those may be the only positive qualities Rove possesses, but those are worth possessing for Democrats, too.

No one wants a Rove clone on our side.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

[UTUSN]

21. Neh, we didn't miss the point. KKKarl's effectiveness is PURELY related to his slime

And the reason we can't have a KKKarl is that as soon as somebody here speaks up for FIGHTING BACK, for being STREETWISE, our "nobility" contingent kicks into action with, "We don't want to be LIKE THEM!!1"

[UTUSN]

25. Here's an opposing (& perspicacious) article:

*******QUOTE*******

(ROMENESKO's introduction: ) Jay Rosen believes political reporters admire how savvy Karl Rove has been and overlook his viciousness. He writes: "Have you noticed, in all the press coverage of Rove's announcement yesterday, how no one spoke of knowing Karl Rove as a source? Matt Cooper is one we know about because of the trial of Scooter Libby. There are many others we do not know about because they agreed to keep his name a secret. But make no mistake: they are also the ones writing the 'balanced' non-committal retrospectives, the ones with 50-50 headlines like 'Rove bows out despised and deified.'"


http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2007/08/14/rove_and_press.html

Karl Rove and the Religion of the Washington Press

...the real—and undeclared—ideology of American journalism is savviness, and this is what made the press so vulnerable to the likes of Karl Rove.

Savviness! Deep down, that’s what reporters want to believe in and actually do believe in— their own savviness and the savviness of certain others (including operators like Karl Rove.) In politics, they believe, it’s better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere or humane.

Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.) Savviness—that quality of being shrewd, practical, well-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political—is, in a sense, their professional religion. They make a cult of it. And it was this cult that Karl Rove understood and exploited for political gain.

What is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Everyone knows that the press admires an unprincipled winner. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[Cha]

26. Little do they know then that

the US corporatemediawhores are the embodiment of UNSAVVINESS EXTRAORDINAIRE!

kkkarl's laughing up his snout at them.

Here's another article that tells it like it is with karl's damage.

snips~
"Bush and Rove largely had their way. And the results were horrific -- Iraq, Katrina, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the starving of vital investments at home, the plundering of billions by contractors in Iraq, the posturing over Terri Schiavo's tragedy, the failure to address climate change, energy dependence, skyrocketing trade deficits, growing inequality, a broken health-care system, soaring college costs. The list goes on.

All this has discredited the president and the conservative movement. Yet, as he leaves, Rove predicts the president will come back by once more trampling the nation's interest for partisan purposes. Rove has set up a battle over warrantless wiretapping to divide Democrats. The president plans to veto spending bills over minor differences to placate the right. Rove's team is ready to sell "progress" in Iraq. The constitution, the truth, the nation's interest will be sacrificed to partisan politics. This country will pay the price of his poisonous work for years to come."


http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/508783,CST-EDT-jackson14.article

[Caro]

28. This article has nothing at all ...

... to do with what Brent said.

Sadly, very few of you actually read the post or tried to take it in.

There's a whole lotta read-react, read-react, read-react goin' on, and not very much read-REFLECT-react.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

[spanone]

22. i disagree. one arrogant divisive hateful criminal is more than the world needs

[Caro]

27. So you don't think there's room in the world ...

... for a dedicated individual who will fight for what he believes in.

That's what Brent is advocating, not putting another slimeball out there.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

[Cha]

23. Nobody needs a kkkarl rover..

the anti-Christ? But, the repukes got 'im. Sure, it's been the shits but I'm glad I wasn't in a political party that the murderous thief is callin' the shots.