I agree; Rove has begun to believe his own press- that he is a political genius- and has become wildly overconfident.
He thinks he can put this over on the conservative base because we're too dumb and distracted to really react to it at the polls
But he's wrong and has badly miscalculated.
Bush is making the same mistake Bush 1 made in slapping his base across the face and expecting them to just sit and take it.