I just realized something about Rove the Evil Genius, the Mastermind.

[Jackpine Radical]

He doesn't have a bag of tricks.

He has one trick.

Trash your opponent with lies.

That's it.

Bt it keeps working.

And by its very nature and our very nature, we can't use it.

[sasquatch]

1. You fight it by calling them on their lies and telling truth about them

[loveable liberal]

2. kkkarl isnt a genius, he's just a liar. Anybody can lie.

where is the genius?

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Right.

[BlueEyedSon]

because the media is complicit

[Junkdrawer]

3. All he has to do is make the GOP election theft plausible....

a subtly different, but easier job than actually winning an election. Basically, throw up a bunch of shit and then have key talking heads praise the "genius" of his strategy.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. In the old days, before they subverted the election machinery,

I assume he had to win a few by actual vote count. Like against Ann Richards (Ann the lesbian, you know).

[Junkdrawer]

25. The question is: When DID they subvert the election machinery?

It varies district-by-district, but many, many would have had to have been subverted prior to 2000. Texas? I don't know enough to hazard a guess.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Shrub won the TX Governorship in 1994.

I think before that, a lot of stuff was in Dem hands down there. Hard to tamper up the system effectively when you're out of power.

[movonne]

4. To me he is not an evil genius, he goes for the lowest non thinker

types..and also the racist creeps,religious taliban,nazi party,etc...this does not make a genius.

[Squeech]

5. No, I think this is how it works

Not all the lies are about the opponent. Many of them are about the process. Consider the fliers distributed in inner city neighborhoods that claim, incorrectly, that you can't vote if you have outstanding arrest warrants or parking tickets.

Consider the hacked voting machines, or the New Hampshire phone bank case-- those were "lies about your opponent" in a narrow technical sense, but what they really are is corruptions of a process where we've been led to expect fair play.

Rove will use whatever tool will work. He's been doing smears since his College Republican training. He used a lawsuit back in the '80s. He's just shameless, and he believes that the end justifies the means.

We don't have to stoop to his level, but we do need to understand it, and not feel ashamed to call bullshit on it.

[Journeyman]

6. Far too simplistic a view. . .

Karl Rove's tactics are far more involved than simply trashing people with lies. Were that the only card he played, it would wear quickly and ultimately turn even ardent Republican supporters against the tone of negativity.

Where Rove excels is in smearing opponents while at the same time creating environments that draw his voters to the polls. In 2004 we saw a plethora of anti-gay marriage amendments, many intended for the sole purpose of pulling a particular set of voters to the polls and, once there, getting them to vote for a slate of issues and candidates. This year, the relatively minor issue of "illegal aliens" is being touted by Rove et al to stir the base and generate excitement in an election many of them would rather sit out, their candidates are so pathetic.

To simply equate Rove with smears and lies is to degrade the truly sinister work he performs, which is to engage the vast numbers of politically obtuse and draw them in to the process. Once roused, these singularly-motivated voters are then manipulated to support a range of candidates and issues -- many of which are diametrically opposed to these voters' interests.

Finally, to address Karl Rove as a mastermind, or an evil genius, is to imbue him with a legitimacy we should be doing all we can to negate. As elections draw near, politically-unaware people will hear of this "mastermind," or even "evil genius," and potentially accept a level of expertise from him that is both unwarranted and misleading. Better to address him as a "political cutthroat," or "election thief," than to give him any sort of positive epithet.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Thanks to you and to others here for thoughtful commentary.

1) Yes, I did oversimplify with my "one trick" comment.
2) My primary point here was to draw back the curtain on the "mastermind," the "evil genius." I agree with everyone here who identifies him as lowlife scum and not a Svengali or Rasputin.

[BurtWorm]

7. His one trick is actually this: Take your opponents positives

and make them negatives. That's all he can do. And it's exactly what he's trying again now.

[robbedvoter]

9. Result: Nancy Pelosi denying intent to impeach. Still working.

[BurtWorm]

10. Exactly. If the Dems show how to cure the world of global warming

Rove will get the media to accuse Dems of trying to freeze the world.

[Patsy Stone]

11. You left out the killer part

Take those same negatives, the ones your candidate possesses, and pass them off as positives.

Kerry's military service: bad.
Bush's AWOL NG service: just fine; nothing to see here. Move along.

Kerry's Yale education -- good GPA: bad.
Bush's Yale education -- bad GPA: good.

Up is down. Black is White.

[BurtWorm]

14. True, but it's much more energy efficient to make a positive look bad

than to make a negative look good. Which is why Rove's normal realm is in the muck.

[robbedvoter]

8. It has the US Government/treasury/media behind it

It takes no genius.
Tony Soprano with the Feds supporting him rather than hindering him would accomplish much more.
Ruthlessness+unlimited power is far from genius.

[seabeyond]

12. i refuse the genius part. it takes no genius to trash and lie

it takes a totally hollow empty nonconscience person, but not a genius. i cringe when people use genius. it is such a lazy way to win. there is no using the brain or being genius, dont give him the credit. there is no brilliance here

[robbedvoter]

13. hear! hear! Totally agree!

It's both inaccurate and morally wrong to bestow these qualities on the little thug.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. Well, I don't use that sarcasm-drippy thing for personal stylistic reasons

because I like to let people figure out those things for themselves, but you can imagine it there in the original post if you want to.

[seabeyond]

28. wink

that is funny. i dont use it for that reason myself. but then i also understand that may lead to some people not getting it, which doesnt bother me either, lol lol. that is funny...........

still i wanted to say it.

[OnionPatch]

22. You are so right

So many of his little stunts are effective...in the *short* term only. That's why he is NOT a genius. Most people have figured out that this level of dishonest and unethical behavior will backfire eventually and bring failure and dishonor to those who use it, even if short term results are quite effective.

[WilliamPitt]

15. East Texas politics

as personified by LBJ in a tight Senate race in the 1950s. The polls were too close for comfort, so Johnson instructed his campaign manager to begin a whisper campaign about his opponent, to the effect that his opponent was known to enjoy carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows.

"Lyndon, that's crazy!" said his campaign manager. "We can't call the guy a pig-fucker! No one will believe it!"

"I don't care if no one believes it," replied Johnson, "but let's make the bastard deny it."

[Jackpine Radical]

32. Classic Lyndon.

[AtomicKitten]

16. And, finally, he's about to get what is so coming to him.

Many wait with bated breath for Patrick Fitzgerald to slap him down.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Oooo, thanx 4 that, AK.

(Sorry I "baited" you the other day).

[AtomicKitten]

27. I am a sponge.

:)

[HughBeaumont]

19. Why is everyone so AFRAID of this fat fuck?

Is he THAT untouchable? Are there NO badass dems ANYwhere that can seriously bring PigShit down?

:rofl:

Sorry, that last sentence couldn't be said with a straight face.

[Ksec]

21. the genuis has his King in the low 30's

Sounds more like an idiot to me.

[ComerPerro]

29. And, of course, make sure you get to count the votes

[ProfessorGAC]

30. I'm Willing To Use It

Good cop/Bad Cop and all that. I think they deserve a taste of their own medicine. Gee, justice and revenge in one fell swoop!
The Professor

[Lexingtonian]

31. not much of a genius

but he knows how to draw out resentments and faux grievances and racism/chauvinism/etc of old white people and Good Ol' Boys and greed-defined and Left Behind varieties of backwoods-y Americans generally. For all the lying and smearing it takes, he does tap into their foolish desires and need to be important and hypocrisies very effectively.

The trouble for him is that these things do wear out when he doesn't deliver satisfaction. He's tapped most of it out- the efficiency has been rather astonishing. But the present shows the other side of this efficiency- when this "political capital" runs this low, there truly is no more to be found. For all that he's done to hurt Democrats, he's used up Republican power thoroughly.

Right now his '06 campaign strategy is essentially pure bluff. He's down to appealing to Republican paranoia of the future and the way Democrats embrace that future. But unlike '00/'02/'04 he has no credible ideological doctrine or certainty of retaining Republican power to unify his rabble for anything in particular or against anything in particular. A single major breakdown of Republican power between now and November, and there's no recovering of Republican morale.

[Jackpine Radical]

33. ..reduced to a "Better the devil you know" strategy, and that only works

as long as you can keep the Illiterati imagining that there are worse demons, gibbering, pedophiliac Libberuls, hiding in the dark closets awaiting nightfall to come out & take over...