Karl Rove: Bush's Napoleon

LATimes ^ | August 14, 2007 | Jonah Goldberg

[CutePuppy]

{Karl Rove: Bush's Napoleon} {Like the French emperor in Russia, Rove's villainy is caused mostly by his failure to quit after his high note in 2004.}

There's an old maxim that if Napoleon had been struck by a cannon ball on his way toward Moscow, he would be remembered as an unrivaled military genius and liberator. But Napoleon overstayed history's welcome and was treated harshly for it, first by the Russians and Mother Nature, then by his own people and, ultimately, by the historians.

In this and other respects, Karl Rove strikes me as a Napoleonic figure. He won an impressive string of campaigns. He dreamed of erecting a new political order on the ashes of the old. He'd look awfully dashing in one of those bicorn hats. And, most of all, Rove -- who announced he will retire Aug. 31 -- stubbornly refused to depart the scene on a historic high note.

.....

Obviously, Rove was aided in his 2004 task by the fact that the Democrats nominated John Kerry, a Michael Dukakis without the brains. But Rove and then-Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman managed to help Bush increase his support among blacks, women, Latinos, independents and urbanites and defeat an opponent who got 8 million more votes than Al Gore. The Republicans held on to the House and Senate too -- a feat not equaled since FDR's reelection in 1936.

.....

The lesson here is particularly acute for conservatives. Rove engineered Bush's victory in 2000 by promising a different kind of Republican, a.k.a. a "compassionate conservative." That meant generally staying mute on racial issues, luring Latinos into the GOP fold by any means necessary and advocating federal activism on everything from single motherhood to education.

.....

Partisan victories are nice, but they aren't an end in themselves.

[CutePuppy]

One view of Rove legacy from the right. "Compassionate conservatism" gets its well-deserved lumps.

[neverdem]

BTTT!

[woofie]

to quote Donald Rumsfeld

“As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

Would it be possible to pay pundits to shut up?

[twonie]

Obviously not. Otherwise, Newt Gingrich would be filthy rich and absolutely silent. Dream on.

[syriacus]

If Rove is Bush’s Napoleon, then who was Napoleon’s Bush?

[CutePuppy]

Would it be possible to pay pundits to shut up?

I suppose so. Pundits (like most people) usually do what they are paid to do.

Rummy often made me laugh uncontrollably or near speechless.