Although I give Rove a lot of credit, I don’t let GW Bush off the hook. I don’t think he’s unintelligent or out of touch. He knew that silence was costing him, his party, his base.
So, he either did this intentionally or unintentionally. If intentionally, he knew it and rode this all the way to the ground with Rove, 2 mad Strangelove cowboys riding that bomb to destruction. If unintentionally, the only explanation would be naively thinking the silence strategy would work.
Of course, there is always the conspiracy theory route. Bush and Rove intentionally destroyed any chance that anyone would defeat the democrats in the next election cycle. Why? Because a greater conspiracy is actually running things.
As you’ll see in the article, I do not let GWB off the hook at all.
Remember though, GWB is not all over Fox News, not asking for Super PAC donations, not running political ads and not giving political advice. Rove is.
The consistency and ubiquity of the malevolence naturally brings conspiracy theories to the fore.