Posted on 10/28/2010 10:03:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Tea Party activists tell The Daily Beast that Karl Rove "has been wrong all summer long." Shushannah Walshe on the party's fight over Sarah Palin and the Republican soul.
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It didn’t take long for Tea Party activists to circle the wagons after Karl Rove’s attack on Sarah Palin.
“What you're seeing is the first shot in the war against Sarah Palin,” said Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips. “Karl Rove is a very shrewd political operative. Getting himself into trouble is not what’s going on,” added Phillips, who earlier this year organized the Tea Party convention, where Palin was the headline speaker.
“Karl Rove–bless his heart–has been wrong all summer long when it comes to having any idea of what conservative Americans want,” said Levi Russell, spokesperson for the Tea Party Express by email. “The difference is that Rove is a D.C. analyst, and Sarah Palin is a leader.” Russell described Palin as “unquestionably the most electrifying figure in politics today,” while Rove “strikes me as a guy who would cross his arms and scowl at the thought of some Hollywood actor named Reagan running for Governor of California.”
Damning by faint praise, Russell went on to say: “Personally I’ve always liked Rove, but it is painfully obvious that he is losing his connection with the American people, and no longer has his finger on the very strong pulse of the conservative movement in this country, which is fueled by the tea party and figures such as Gov. Palin.”
In an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Rove on Wednesday questioned Palin’s suitability for the presidency, citing her reality-TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which will air next month.
“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’,” Rove said.
Rove was the architect of the Bush presidency—and a big-tent vision of the Republican Party he hoped would long outlast 43’s time in the White House. But by the time Bush left office, his approval ratings had sunk so low that many conservatives ran away from his legacy, and avoided even mentioning his name.
As the Obama presidency used the force of the federal government to try to tame an economy in ruins, a grass-roots brigade of Tea Partiers rose up—reacting against Big Government and eager to revive a Republican Party in limbo.
With Obama’s declining fortunes, Rove has reasserted himself, funneling rivers of newly unrestricted campaign cash into an effort to aid Republican candidates nationwide. As Election Day draws near, the infighting between Rove and the Tea Partiers has grown more intense—jockeying for primacy over the direction of the party, a battle that could shape the presidential election in 2012.
The Palin attack wasn’t Rove’s first swipe at the Tea Party movement.
When Christine O’Donnell won the GOP Delaware primary, Rove went on Fox News and expressed concern about her “character,” adding she had been saying “a lot of nutty things.” Palin quickly came to O’Donnell’s defense, also on Fox News, telling Rove to “buck up.”
O’Donnell didn’t return the favor on Thursday, as she was too busy with her campaign for the Senate seat to comment, a spokesperson said. Her team did, however, emailed a note from conservative strategist and Reagan biographer, Craig Shirley. “Before criticizing Sarah Palin, Mr. Rove might remember that Ronald Reagan once hosted a couple of television shows including G.E. Theater and Death Valley Days,” Shirley said.
On Thursday, there were new hints that Palin is interested in the presidency as Entertainment Tonight promoted an upcoming interview with Palin in which she says she’ll run in 2012, “if there’s nobody else to do it.”
Whether she can win, though, is an open question. According to a poll released earlier this month, 64 percent of Americans believe she would not make an effective president.
“What Rove is saying, and other Republicans are saying, [is that] if you look at the polls, Palin is not qualified to be president,” said Republican strategist John Feehery, adding that this may be the opening salvo in the fight for the Republican soul. “Once this election is over, we start the next campaign,” he said. “Whoever is our presidential candidate is going to be the one who’s going to be defining Republican policies,” Feehery said. “There are a lot of people who love Sarah Palin who think Karl Rove is off his rocker, and there starts the competition.”
Rove, who has raised millions of dollars for the Republican Party during this election cycle, also talked about a possible Palin candidacy as he appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. The architect of Bush’s two election wins displayed his trademark cool.
“Look, there are going to be several geological ages that are going to come and go before the 2012 Republican presidential nomination fight gels,” he said.
So if this is correct then it’s significant they come together as the day approaches...because I sure don’t want to see a fractured party giving Obama the vote again!
So it seems you are saying the Republicans doing this are set at taking Palin down.
Wow where have I been! Not watching the party close enough it does seem...so it’s war in our party! I’m p*ssed! I know each candidate is for themselves...but the idea is to put someone up who can win over Obama or Hillary. They would take down Sarah’s possibility to do that! It’s as if Washington is fighting the people and tht includes the Republican party! Am beginning to feel like an idiot...
Yes, and yet, I’ve come to resent him. He’s not on the right side of our movement and now I’m glad.
Rove is a hated name, so now I’m happy that he’s not supporting Sarah Palin. Let him find and fund his RINO candidate...lol.
No way..Rove for Rommney? Boy I am missing the whole program!
Hey Karl, Bush is no longer president. Take a cue from him and get out of the way.
Yeah, you are.
Onyx...I feel like I’m coming out of a dead zone...is the party that determined to split the party? That’s dangerous politics and therefore they have lost touch with the people.
Speaking of Romney. Where has he been this election cycle?
He seems to be MIA.
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He is going to endorse the winning candidates on November 3.
Well thanks for that confirmation...sheesh...needing some light in this tunnel!
No, Rove is trying to get attention.
Sarah Palin is Chris Wallace’s guest on Fox News Sunday!
Tuesday is Election Day when we VOTE OUT the anti-AMERICANS!
STAY FOCUSED. ELECTION 2012, STARTS NOVEMBER 3, 2012.
Watch Rove for Governor Daniels, not Romney.
Longshot, Mike Pence, but I think he wants to run for Governor to replace Daniels.
:)
I am sooooo embarrasssed....I honestly didn’t realize how deep the liberal mind was in the party... I am very much a conservative but it looks like I’ve swallowed some kool-aid from those in the party. Ok..I got it but going off-line ...I have got to come to grips with this NOW!
12 months ago, Rove wasn’t actively working to sink Republican candidates.
You have no idea what hypocrisy means, do you? You’ve got the idea completely backwards.
Of course Obama has no "gravitas", but that's beside the point of this discussion...
Rove was off-key in the way he commented about Palin & O'Donnell, and maybe others I don't know about, but you could sure make a case for "straight talk, devil's advocate"...fair warning of how the media could destroy the whole conservative/Tea Party/Republican momentum by denigrating honest people who aren't "sophisticated" (or don't care to be) in the ways of big-team polical leadership...
Before the flame-throwers come out, let me just say, I am no fan of John McCain or Mitt Romney! The opposite, in fact. I am a bit of a Karl Rove fan, though, and "W"...
The point being, does anyone here really think that Sarah Palin right now is the equivalent of Ronald Reagan when he ran for President, and was twice elected??? Reagan was a great debater, and unflappable in the face of hostile media for one thing. He had a lot of life experience before he ran, and could get the better of anyone in the drollest way when he chose to...we should be looking for another "character actor", and not a "rock star" type to carry the standard! (not to imply Sarah Palin is one or the other, and she's still much younger than Reagan was when he ran)
More to the point, don't be fooled by the "success" of the callow Obama and the cheating ways of the "progressive" election machine...my thought is that someone like Rove just doesn't want to see the best and the brightest of the conservative people get thrown in before they're truly ready to deal well with governing, although you could quarrel with his means. Remember how "inspiring" candidate Obama was to so many Americans, and yet how incompetent he is as President...
Karl Rove is far too smart and knowledgeable to throw overboard, or even criticize too much...who knows what he's "architecturing" now?! I wouldn't presume he's working on getting Romney, McCain, or Huckabee on for 2012...those guys had their chance, some more than once, and it's time for them to get off the stage, IMHO...
Two years is a long time...who knows what will happen for 2012, and why rush things pointlessly? We should stick together, and keep our powder dry...politics can be so arcane (think, Senate rules, etc.) but there are no "bad" conservatives, and united we will go forward, even if it has to be an inch or two at a time...this year we'll take back the House and at least increase the Senate representation, and it sure would be rich if O'Donnell pulled out a victory despite she's not Castle, but that's a whole 'nother argument/point-of-view, LOL!
Rove, Bush=Amnesty.
I never liked him or trusted him after that. Only slightly trusted him before that when he was staying way back out of the spotlight. Once the light got in, Rove was a whole lot smaller than the big shadow he cast and his advice to Bush was wrong far more than it was right,
Here’s the thing: The MSM, academia, Hollywood, the DNC, Broadway, TV, the nutroots and the rest have been trying 24/7 to destroy Governor Sarah Palin. How has that worked out?
Just teasing - a person's entitled to his/her opinion, and you've certainly stated yours in a creative and descriptive way!
Question for you and/or all: could you explain the differences, if any, between the Tea Party, the Tea Party Express, and the Tea Party Nation? and are there other Tea Party organizations as well?
I am all in favor of any conservative candidates, and support the TEA principle, but I do always wonder when the media is generically slamming "Tea Party rallies" and candidates, etc., just what/who the heck they're actually talking about!
I also heard something recently about some Dem. groups colluding with bogus opposition candidates to get a "Tea Party" listing on the mid-term ballots in order to split the conservative vote...is that possible?! Shouldn't be!
Not real well! But my point was more that unless the nominee can win a plurality of the country (when running for President), they can't be successful...and if you think a lot of sh*t has been dug up and slung so far, you'd be right, but it's only the tip of the pile you'd see if Sarah was actually running for President or anything else.
I think she could be a fearsome contender, but I'm not sure when. The other thing is, she's really good in principle on the issues, but I just don't know if she's ready to run the national defense, the economy, immigration policy, education policy, foreign policy, and manage the Congressional "bully pulpit" in any real practical or effective way.
Not that the President personally runs all that hands-on, but Obama's been largely a disaster, letting the "old Democrat lions" in Congress and his uber-liberal appointees run the country. Obama's not capable of really being in charge. Not only does he lack the experience, he'd prefer to be the "figurehead" President, just throwing his ideas out and charging his "minions" to get it done.
Palin wouldn't be like that, but I do think there are other good conservatives with better experience out there, at the moment (Daniels, maybe Ryan, Cantor - can't say off-hand, just NOT Romney, McCain, Huckabee, LOL! Rubio's going to be formidable in a few years, too)...we'll just have to see where we are in a few months, but first things first!
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