WP, Dan Froomkin: Are Rove's attacks on Clinton a "colossal head-fake"? His denials are "limp."

[DeepModem Mom]

Another Rove Fake-Out?
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, August 20, 2007

I'm used to my readers ascribing all sorts of convoluted motivations to White House political mastermind Karl Rove. But now several upstanding mainstream media outlets are raising the possibility that Rove's attacks on Hillary Clinton are a colossal head fake.

Ever since he announced his resignation in the Wall Street Journal last week, President Bush's close adviser has been attacking Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, right and left. She's a "fatally flawed candidate," Rove told Journal editorial-page editor Paul A. Gigot. She's weak on national security, he told Rush Limbaugh. She carries too much baggage from her husband's White House years, he told Steve Holland of Reuters. But taking Rove at face value has often proved to be a big mistake. And on Sunday morning, just before Rove set off on a round of television interviews, Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times kicked off a round of informed MSM conspiracy-theorizing....

***

Wallsten recalls what Rove lieutenant Matthew Dowd apparently acknowledged during a conference at Harvard shortly after the 2004 election. During the primaries, Rove was considerably more afraid of then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina than of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Dowd said. "Whomever we attacked was going to be emboldened in Democratic primary voters' minds," Dowd said.

So they attacked Kerry....

***

When Rove took up the Clinton critique again on the Sunday talkers, two of his three interlocutors raised the head-fake charge. His denials were limp.

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked: "Her campaign says the more you attack her, the more the Democrats love her. So why are you helping Hillary Clinton?

"ROVE: Didn't know that I was. Don't think that I am....

***

On Meet the Press, NBC's David Gregory noted, when Rove refused to talk about Obama: "You haven't shied away from talking about Hillary Clinton....Do you really fear Barack Obama? That's why you're spending all this time attacking Hillary Clinton?

MR. ROVE: You know, I -- you know, I read that in the LA Times this morning. Those, those guys really out in LA have got to get clued in. I mean, come on."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[antiimperialist]

1. White Southern Males win most elections. Edwards is the perfect target

John Edwards is not only good-looking, which is an important factor considering many voters are dumb. He's also a Southern male.
I think right-wingers want to get rid of him first.

[babylonsister]

2. Hot stuff from Froomkin-thanks! Rec'd. Rove is becoming a sad man. nt