But Seriously, What was Up with Karl Rove Last Night?

[alcibiades_mystery]

I spent much of yesterday trashing any thread that suggested a "stolen election."

I am on record here for many years now poo-pooing suggestions that voting machines are rigged, though I of course recognize voter suppression in the form of making it harder for particular populations to vote.

But I gotta tell you, watching Karl Rove's bizarre insistence that Ohio was still in play last night just put a weird feeling on the whole thing. Rove's not stupid. He knows damn well that if Lucas and Cuyahoga are the only outstanding counties left in Ohio, that no Republican is going to cover a 40,000 vote deficit, or a 20,000 vote deficit, and probably not even a 30,000 vote lead. He knows that.

So what the fuck was he doing? It was almost as if he was expecting something that never materialized, that he was sure some event would turn it around, like a pre-arranged something was supposed to happen. It was truly bizarre.

The only other explanation I can come up with is that he wanted - for pure spite - to disrupt the Democratic celebration, to make it sputter, to remind people one more time of how he had ratfucked them in 2000.

I'm completely mystified by his behavior. There was no logic to it. The deeply satisfying thing is, of course, that Rove has to go back to his billionaire backers and explain to them how he spent $200 million to no effect. Loser.

[WinkyDink]

1. Your last sentence answers your question. He was running SCARED.

[Renew Deal]

24. I agree

And there is something very wrong with one of the top money players and PAC managers being an analyst. The conflict of interest was obvious.

[msanthrope]

2. Think about it. You go into one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos, and you bet the house

to the tune of millions, and there's no payoff.

What do you think happens to you?

Karl should sweat.

[WinkyDink]

36. "Take the cannoli."

[KansDem]

59. Shel would call this guy in...

He'd get to the bottom of it!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

3. Wouldn't your love

to be a fly on the wall in in some of those meetings? Or at Adelson's breakfast table this am?

[jpak]

4. His career as Asshat in Chief is over

Yup

[seabeyond]

5. that would be how he got it for bushie at about 8 pm on election night in 2004. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

12. They mentioned that on one of the channels.

How Condoleeza Rice was crying because they thought they had lost reelection and Rove told them to hold tight because there were votes in Ohio.

Do you recall anything about that?

[barbiegeek]

23. He did-didn't he

[LisaL]

64. I saw him on TV saying MSM called OH too early and there were still votes out for Romney.

Even though it was Cuyahoga county that didn't come in yet. Cuyahoga is very blue.

[seabeyond]

29. yes... central time, clear up to 7:30ish it was a kerry win. strongly. hadnt heard a thing from

bushcos... then about that time it cut away from news to the bushcos sitting in a yellow rooms, all comfortable and confident, and breaks to a huge number shift to bush from ohio.

so damn obvious.

there really was more to it. not gonna do research to remember.

[Baitball Blogger]

30. Hmm...so it looks like we realize they're stealing them, and we're successfully blocking

their efforts.

Make no mistake, they will come up with something high tech by the next election.

[Plaid Adder]

6. He was doing what he did in 2004 and expecting it to work. Because apparently he is magic.

Or thinks he is.

I have to say watching his ship sink is the icing on the cake for me. Fuck you and your Ohio games, Karl. You don't matter any more. Please pack your knives and go.

The Plaid Adder

[ProudProgressiveNow]

75. +1 nt

[deutsey]

7. Yeah, it was odd

He sure seemed like he believed something was going to happen.

[LondonReign2]

15. Fortunately the CIA and DoD

were monitoring the central vote tabulators this time and reveresed RovePig's codes.

[deutsey]

20. Well, that was nice of them, what with their busy schedules and all n/t

[marions ghost]

54. in Ohio?

where did you hear this

[sabrina 1]

8. He was like a hit man waiting for the call to tell him the job was done, but instead

gets a call from the very much alive intended victim! He was in shock!

Heads will probably roll for failing so miserably!

Either they're slipping, or we are getting smarter at foiling them!

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Yeah, that's a great analogy

That's what it felt like, and it was very public and humiliating.

Like "Why, why isn't it happening?"

Even the other Fox commentators were giving him the stink-eye like "What's this all about?"

Weird, weird stuff.

And so delicious that Axelrod comes out shining, while Rove gets the stench of the loser on him.

[Waiting For Everyman]

28. "when the hitman comes, he knows damn well he has been cheated... "

Somewhere in a lonely hotel room
There's a guy starting to realize
That eternal fate has turned its back on him
It's two a.m.

It's two a.m. the fear has gone
I'm sitting here waitin' the gun still warm
Maybe my connection is tired of takin' chances
Yeah there's a storm on the loose, sirens in my head
I'm wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
I cannot decode
My whole life spins into a frenzy

Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

I'm falling down a spiral
Destination unknown
A double-crossed messenger
All alone
I can't get no connection
I can't get through
Where are you
Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
And when the hitman comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated
And he says...

Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone

...

Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
This is a madhouse
Feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone

[sabrina 1]

62. Lol, that's a great song! Poor Rove, he never thought we were smart enough to foil him.

He mistook our not trying to stop him because what decent person could even imagine back then, the twisted mind of someone like him. But once we found out, he wasn't prepared for how smart Liberals are, he bought their own right wing rhetoric about Liberals.

Kind of neat to let them go on thinking they are smarter, and then land the surprise punch which he got last night and he couldn't take it.

[WinkyDink]

39. "He's still alive. They hit him with five shots, and he's still ALIVE!"

[Roland99]

53. or this >>>>

"Barnes been shot seven times and he ain't dead. Does that mean anything to you, huh? Barnes ain't meant to die. The only thing that can kill Barnes is Barnes."

[WinkyDink]

56. Alas, I don't recognize it.

[Roland99]

57. It's from Platoon.

[WinkyDink]

58. Ah! (And I've seen it! )

[ProudProgressiveNow]

76. Love the Godfather references,,,,

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Likewise. I'm surprised he survived the night.

No one at Fox could get through to him. That guy has serious problems.

[2pooped2pop]

10. video anyone? I wanna see it. n/t

[lady lib]

32. It's posted on Americablog. nt

[Hekate]

79. It's posted here as part of The Daily Show

It is LOL funny, in Jon Stewart's hands.

8 minute clip

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-gleefully-rips-into-fox-news-election-coverage-there-was-an-avalanche-on-bullsht-mountain/

or the whole episode on TheDailyShow.com, dated Wednesday.

[sadbear]

11. We mustn't let our guard down.

When we start trusting the election machine is when they start stealing elections.

[sandyshoes17]

14. That's exactly what I say

The fix was in and something happened. It didn't materialize.

[ecstatic]

38. Exactly. They paid a hacker and got screwed

[ailsagirl]

69. It would certainly explain a lot-- though I sure wouldn't want to be the hacker

Remember Mike McConnell

[sofa king]

73. Maybe that's what the "update" was.

If the fix was already in on the Ohio machines, and it was a fix designed to make a close shave always drift Romney's way, then it would have to be hurriedly removed if the President broke out of the polling margin of error...

[Yavin4]

16. Karl Raised A Ton of Dirty Money and Promised to Deliver the Election

How would you behave if you raised a ton of money from "investors" and failed to deliver. You'd act crazy and paranoid as well.

[2pooped2pop]

46. did you see the woman on Fox who went back to the

decision room or whatever they called it. She said, something like "when we rehearsed this earlier, this is where my sound cut out."

Why would they have rehearsed her going back there, I wonder?

[wildeyed]

17. Maybe he is stuck in the rightwing echo chamber too.

So many who created and once controlled the propaganda machine are now in thrall to it. Weird..... And I know what you mean. I have always thought of Karl Rove a lying sack of shit, but one with a prodigious understanding of election math and statistics. Until last night where he seemed no different than any of the other sputtering RW talking heads. weird.

[Ikonoklast]

18. Husted's actions were under a microscope from OFA and the courts.

His actions were being outlined by the actinic glare of a ten million candlepower spotlight focused directly at him, and decided his going to prison for Karl Rove wasn't worth it after
Pennsylvania was lost to them.


Husted will be destroyed personally and politically by them now, if not killed outright.

People get murdered for far less than a few hundred million spent by insane vindictive billionaires.

[Grammy23]

26. That would be my guess, too, that Husted chickened out in the end.

He knew he was under surveillance and his every move monitored. He had already been warned and I am guessing he figured getting busted for Election Fraud or some other reason related to the election was not worth it. Thank goodness, something kicked in last night and Rove was the big loser. I am SURE he had other plans but all of that blew up in his face. I can only imagine what was taking place behind closed doors. OH, the stories we're gonna hear just as soon as the first book gets rolled out! Talk about a page turner......when all the people that know something about this election start to sing like birds. Tweet, tweet, tweet....

[ChisolmTrailDem]

48. I blasted probably 50 very explicit tweets at him right before the election

calling him every name in the book for his effort to suppress the vote as well as letting him know he was being watched. Those same tweets also went to every relevant hashtag I could fit into the tweet, as well as other entities like @JusticeWatch and @TheJusticeDept and several FBI accounts.

[marions ghost]

55. You said what I was about to say

Santa's Helpers couldn't git er done....

Yeah, Husted will be blamed.

[KharmaTrain]

19. Rover's Gotta Pay The Piper...

I'm betting his phones are ringing this morning...Mr. Adelson on Line 1, Mr. Koch on Line 2, Mr. Wynn on Line 3, Mr. Perry on Line 4...and so on. He had a billion dollars and promised that would defeat President Obama and retake the Senate. He promised he had "the math" again that would beat people power with shear dollars. In the end he was dumping money in non combative states and trying to blame Hurricane Sandy as the reason their investments went down the shitters. Karl's denial is having to face the reality of the day after a total blow out.

[newspeak]

21. KKKrove can kiss my arse!!!!

in nevada berkley lost because of the dirtiest campaign my MIL stated she had ever seen. one add made it look like berkley was just having a vacation on taxpayer's dime when she was actually part of the NATO meeting. another proclaimed her the most corrupt member of congress brought to you by some RW rag. it was dirty, it was slimey and a total fabrication. but, the people here bought it. heller is another privatize the shite out of everything-he's another corporate bought teabagger. now, unfortunately, he's my representative. they funneled lots of moolah in this state to defeat her. i hope karma comes back and bites him in the arse.

[woodsprite]

22. When I saw him last night, I called that he was pissed because

he probably planned to manipulate results and steal votes in OH and FL. But with the way the Dems played it, he'd need to steal several states to pull Romney/Ryan out of the shitcan.

THAT would be way too obvious and he couldn't do it.

[GeorgeGist]

25. Gangsters don't like to lose.

Especially money.

[Marr]

27. Remember this guy?

That's what he was doing.

On a side note, I've never seen Karl Rove do anything to make me think he was particularly intelligent. He's often proved himself to be completely without integrity, however.

[grantcart]

31. it wasn't that FOX was giving up on OHIO, it was that he was giving it up so early.

It was incredibly close, but if you knew whose numbers hadn't voted you knew that Romney couldn't catch up.

Which brings us to the nut factory called FR.

Here they express their anger at FOX.

Not for being wrong, but for being correct too early.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021746799

Rove just wanted to stretch it out, to try and make it look like a cliff hanger so that he could start to undermine the President's mandate.

Your original suspicion was correct. No conspiracy.

[goclark]

70. Wow! grantcart you nailed the Election!

Watching the numbers roll in for OBAMA was a thing of beauty.

[kelliekat44]

33. How about': He expected their theft plan to work but it didn't? Their computer whizzes were plants

from the Obama camp. Maybe that explanation will clue him in. Or how about: More people voted for Obama than voted for Romney?

[edhopper]

34. The Media treat Rove

like he's a political genius.
He's not. He lost the election, both general and EC in 2000. Lost again, but stole it in 2004.
Lost really big in 2006. And was on the losing side in 2008.
He is a sham.

[DonRedwood]

35. I thought the same thing. He was setting something up

and freaking out because he could see it slipping away.

I think his little minions saw the bigger loss and started to refuse to do what he expected of them.

[Lex]

37. I think he was buying time because Romney melted down when he realized he lost.

[alcibiades_mystery]

60. That's a good point

Somebody got on the horn and told him Romney's in total meltdown, and they need time to get him together. Interesting.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

40. Even the other fox talking heads suggested in so many words that he STFU.

He's history. How many careers ended last night? This is gonna be so much fun to watch.

[blazeKing]

41. Ohio was the only battleground state to underperform the RCP average

Just saying. There may have been some shenanigans going on.

[LeftInTX]

52. I noticed that too

Something wasn't right...

[LisaL]

65. Sure did.

[TwilightGardener]

42. Maybe it wasn't worth it to steal in Ohio when it became clear

that CO, VA, and possibly FL were going to Obama anyway? Had Romney had a way to win by that point, I think there'd be some funny business today with Ohio. Unlike you, I did not discount the "stolen election" threads, though I have generally been a skeptic in the past.

[mfcorey1]

80. I hope that the DOJ has Rove and Husted under surveillance. The actions after the

loss for Romney will be very interesting.

[librechik]

43. we've always said that to overcome vote rigging, we must show up in huge numbers

We did! and whatever Karl had in place at zero hour is 2100 plus 20 or whenever the big secret switch was timed to throw the election didn't hqppen because they just didn't make it close enough to pass.

Karl still thought he was in charge of the big switch, he has been for years, and of course he's the one man who can say who won with authority. So he kept doing that as if the Repubs were still winning. This is their standard cover- your- loser- ass behavior. They're ALWAYS the winners, no matter what.

I'm being metaphorical. There probably isn't a big secret switch, but "something" as you describe it.

[Springslips]

44. The concept is known as denial.

[nyquil_man]

45. Remember 2006? Karl said he had "THE MATH."

Hacks do what hacks do.

[brindis_desala]

47. we got a heads up

http://twitter.com/ReutersJamie/status/265757457165463552


Jamie McGeever
@ReutersJamie

Unbelievable, but true: Republicans have not won a US presidential election without a Bush or Nixon on the ticket since 1928.

You don't cheat for a loser. Ohio was moot.

[Art_from_Ark]

78. Oh, my gosh, you're right

They haven't won a presidential election in 84 years without a bu$h or Nixon on the ticket.

So, does that mean that JEB! (TM) will get the nomination in 2016?

[dickthegrouch]

49. He's afraid Kochs will ask for their money back :D

All those Wrong projections and Wrong predictions and Wrong guesses

He has proven he is a snake oil salesman today. Hopefully he's finished.

[mattclearing]

50. Unlike in 2004...

...they didn't steal/suppress enough. I'm sure the fix was in but they probably underestimated the magic number.

[liberal_at_heart]

51. I watched a few minutes of that

As soon as they called Colorado, they got him off camera very quickly. It was over.

[K-Matt]

61. He got into Limbaugh's OxyContin stash

[demhottie]

63. Honestly, I think Obama won by a huge margin

and it overcame "the fix"

One day, we'll know the truth. People eventually write books- when the statute of limitations runs out.

Can't wait for Karl's

[jeff47]

66. I don't think it's that complicated.

Rove has had a terrible track record since 2006......and we can argue he didn't do well in 2004 and 2000 either.

This time, he got rich people to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars. To lose every race he touched.

When OH was called, Rove realized his career was over. It's apparent to everyone that he doesn't have "the math". It's obvious he's not a political genius. So he's not going to get those big bucks any more.

It's understandable that he's not going to gracefully except the end of his livelihood.

[ailsagirl]

71. But there have been "unexplained" casualties...

Senator Paul Wellstone
Mike Connell

I'm sure the list goes on.

[toddaa]

67. Occam's Razor: Rove is a moron

I've owned toaster ovens smarter than Rove.

[Doremus]

68. I can't fathom the purpose, but it was pre-planned.

After Rove first voiced his disagreement with the decision to call Ohio, the blonde female anchor took a walk down to the 'decision department' or whatever they called it. She walked through several corridors, turned a corner and said that this was the section of the building where she lost audio during rehearsal.

Can't imagine why they'd plan such a thing, but they definitely knew they were going to be walking through the building to interview the staffers who made the decision to call Ohio for Obama and rehearsed it ahead of time.

[trackfan]

72. Maybe the Bushes left him out of the loop when they decided to double cross Romney.

Or maybe he knew the double cross was coming, and was doing a good job of play acting.

[Octafish]

74. +1

With Jebthro waiting in the wings.

[Matariki]

77. Yeah, it really made me wonder if there was so very awesome behind the scenes "keeping it honest"

but then I'm paranoid about the vote counting since 2004. I've been paranoid ever since that creepy video clip of Peter King saying "well take care of the counting"