Rove's 'No More Akins' Group Outrages Conservatives (Free Republic Mentioned)

The Atlantic Wire ^ | 2/4/13 | ELSPETH REEVE

[jimbo123]

Karl Rove's American Crossroads has started a new group to make sure the 2014 Senate races produce zero Todd Akins. But it turns out some conservatives like Rove less than Akin.

-snip-

The Senate Conservatives Fund's Matt Hoskins told Politico the Crossroads group was the "Conservative Defeat Project." Free Republic posters mocked "Tokyo Rove." On Breitbart.com, Ben Shapiro called Rove and his cohorts, "The Bush insider team that helped lead to the rise of Barack Obama." RedState editor Erick Erickson said the Conservative Victory Project was sure to pick losers. "I dare say any candidate who gets this group’s support should be targeted for destruction by the conservative movement." Erickson wrote. "They’ve made it really easy not to figure out who the terrible candidates will be in 2014." In another post at RedState, Daniel Horowitz warned of an enemy within under the headline "The Snakes in the GOP Grass":

[vette6387]

I understand, you like Akin
You understand, I don’t!
I undersand, You are unhappy with those of us who don’t share your “vision.”
You understand, I had no part in “helping” Akin to loose.

End of Story!

[C. Edmund Wright]

There are several arguments going - because there are several questions or issues on the table - and some freepers can’t seem to process that. The only disagreement I have with what you say below is that for maybe 2-3 days after the fraudulent primary, there was indeed time for Akin to step aside. During that time, most of the pressure came from “good guys” like Rush, hannity, etc, and Rove was not really an issue then. People are re wrting history here.

Rove’s biggest problem regarding Akin is the fact that he is now blaming Akin for Rove’s poor campaign of Super PACs to help Romney - and in the tiny Rovian mind, all GOP losses are due to Angle, O Donnell and Akin, instead of the establishments incompetence.

None of that changes the fact that Akin’s a joke.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Thank you for pointing that out. I had forgotten about Palin and Malkin doing so.

[C. Edmund Wright]

The point is that Vichy Rove has declared war on conservative candidates, and will be cheered on by the usual suspects who see conservatives as enemies of the RINO-Dem coalition

Well that's certainly true, but that's not the ONLY point. To use the "war" analogy, my point is that Akin is not a "hill to die on" in opposing Rove, because in this rare instance, Rove is maybe correct. Huckabee and Newt shamed themselves on that hill, while, as Lakeshark pointed out, Malkin and Palin and Rush and Levin stayed the hell away from Akin and in the early days asked him to withdraw.

So I guess the main point IMO is this: this is war against Rove. We will win it, unless we waste our good ammo and soliders on bad causes, and Akin was an awful cause. And besides, Akin is not "one of us" really in the first place. He just clung to that mantle after he was in trouble.

Which brings me to another main point: just being right on the issues is NOT enough. It's important, but it's NOT ENOUGH by itself.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Norm, trust me, how I think is unattainable for you.

[C. Edmund Wright]

You support the people who tanked his campaign. You think that was a wise choice. Thus, you lack the mental clarity to see your stupidity.

Are you really that obtuse? REALLY? Is your reading comprehenision really that low? You should take a course. I never wrote a single syllable that indicates that, and the fact you KEEP going back to that points to a certain lack of ability to process information. I don't support Akin OR the people who tanked his campaign.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Thanks for the info, I am disappointed Bachman did that in the primary, with 1, maybe 2 good candidates who would have beaten Claire.

[C. Edmund Wright]

This is a conservative country, and the majority of states are also conservative. It makes no sense that Harry Reid controls the Senate, except for the incredible hamfisted behavior of conservatives. It certainly cannot be attributed to the brilliance of the left.

There is a subset of conservatives who find some kind of a badge of honor by supporting the worst pro life candidates they can possiby find, as if they get extra credit for standing up for certain issues when the candidate is embarrassing. And as a bonus, they get to sit on their high horse and claim that everyone opposing their awful candidate is part of the RINO Rove establishment pro abort underground.

Then there are others who simply look at issue surveys and act like support for the right issues is all that matters, and they never consider that other factors are also important.

I would invite both groups to open their minds and consider that there are good candidates who also believe the right things and will vote the right way....and it is actually NOT a badge of honor to throw in with a loser just because he/she has the right beliefs. The right beliefs are not that rare.

Analogy: When Obama indicated that he was going to roll back Reagans work as the goal of his presidency, I agreed with Obama - he is indeed focused on Reagan. When Rove said Akin was a problem, I agreed with Rove. Now I may never agree with either man again, and I certainly don't agree with how they want to proceed from here. But within the narrow confines of what they said, I agree.

[C. Edmund Wright]

There is no way Norm is capable of processing that.
Yes, I know, you were clear, your concept was not complex for most minds, but I am confident in predicting that it will not be understood by the recipient.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Sorry Norm, the guy was a total ass in what he said and how he played it. He won the primary by splitting the two tea party candidates with liberal money and appealing to their vote (and you call yourself principled....meh). He was asked to drop out by lots of great conservativesw, people you claim to admire and support, yet he stubbornly held his ground when it was obvious he couldn't win and should have yielded his position to a conservative who could. He was the one at fault, not the people who asked him to drop out. That you can't see Akin was a stubborn ego driven fool who all by himself let the dems take a very precious senate seat, one that was literally handed to us doesn't reflect well on you.

Well said, needed repeating, though I worry about "ears to hear" for those who need to hear it. There's some kind of disease going around on this thread that infects certain brains with the idea that you either support Akin 100% or you are part of the Rove cabal that gave us Romney. Not sure what kind of linear thinking that is, but its absurdity is lost on those carrying the disease....

[Lakeshark]

It is a fact that Akin could have won.

Norm, that is so foolish, the man lost by double digits to an awful candidate, a radical leftist in a state that Romney carried handily.

ANY OTHER CONSERVATIVE WOULD HAVE WON HAD THE MAN STOOD DOWN. DID YOU HEAR THAT NORM? NO ONE WANTED A RINO TO TAKE HIS PLACE, THERE WERE OTHER EXCELLENT CONSERVATIVES THAT HADN'T SHOWN AKIN'S INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY AND ARROGANCE WHO WOULD HAVE WON. DID YOU HEAR THAT NORM?

If you were a democrat you would be trying to show fealty to people like Toricelli, Elliot Spitzer, or Anthony Weiner. Your "I'm so principled" act is wearing thin. Losing is the only principle you seem to be wed to........

[centurion316]

Rove did not destroy Akin’s campaign, Akin did. This is a conservative country, but many women and many suburban conservatives are only softly so. Given a choice, they will vote for the conservative, but if they perceive that candidate to be too dumb or too radical, they can be easily manipulated by the media to vote for the “mainstream” Democrat.

This was Akin’s problem. My son and daughter in law voted for Akin and I would have as well had I lived in Missouri. But, their Kansas City professional conservative friends did not. The guys who do elections for a living understood that Akin was a dead man walking the minute his comments were aired. Unfortunately, some folks with their own very narrow agenda understood how to feed Akin’s ego and were able to convince him to stay in the race. Those people claim to be conservatives, but they are not interested in advancing a national conservative political agenda, they are only interested in advancing their own personal power agenda and wrap themselves in conservative robes to do it.

I wonder how Akin’s conservative voting record is going to help us in the Senate the next two years? Conservative candidates who can’t win are worse than useless.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Unfortunately, some folks with their own very narrow agenda understood how to feed Akin’s ego and were able to convince him to stay in the race. Those people claim to be conservatives, but they are not interested in advancing a national conservative political agenda, they are only interested in advancing their own personal power agenda and wrap themselves in conservative robes to do it.

YES! Exactly, and a lot of Freepers fell right for it. Akins family, and the moron who convinced Newt's super pac to run the Bain Capital ads, did just that so they could all be paid big bucks as part of a campaign - and they knew they could run a national fund raising campaign as this courageous outsider and get dupes like Huckabee to support it - and they all made money while throwing a senate seat away. Akin's top spokesperson is an establishment hack, and yet they ran a BS campaign for their own personal gain. This was sooooooo transparent....

[C. Edmund Wright]

Norm can’t possiby be that dense...he must just be messin with us....

[Lakeshark]

I wish he WAS just messin. Unfortunately he isn't, which is why I had to use gratuitous amounts of caps lock to say the obvious.......

:-)

[Mr. Lucky]

What you said.

[urtax$@work]

amen ansell2 !

Aiken talked himself out of a senate seat when “ a ham sandwich could beat Clair McCaskill” .
Palin was pushing Steelman for the primary race, but
Missouri voters chose Aiken.

Aikens wife was his campaign mgr. / I dont think they even
own a TV. Aiken was MIA in Western Mo. for the run up to
the November election too.

Would not be surprised dems crossed over in the OPEN Primaries
to pick a loser for the Repubs.

[wardaddy]

man...that is a who’s who of waspy and oy vey psuedo conservative cash

with some Texas cash for good measure

they will be hard to beat money wise

[wardaddy]

going thru the first 10 pages I saw several names in the 5 figure range that I know or my dad knew

not bad folks

they just don’t culture war as much and from a business perspective think Rove is effective

I think they are ignorant...uninformed..about Rove and his string of losses...and the GOPE in general

only two nation wide popular votes since 1984

not good

[kevkrom]

Akin, Angle, Christine O’Donnell - these were all first-class political train wrecks

There was little wrong with Akin or (to a lesser degree) O'Donnell that wouldn't have been fixed by a good candidate training program for how to handle the media and the inevitable "gotcha" questions.

Angle was doing pretty well, actually, for a relative novice -- nothing she would have done would have been able to top the Reid/Casino/Mafia fraud.