If Rove had managed to come in from outside, shake up the California Republican establishment, and make it better, fine. More power to him. But clearly he changed things for the worse. Most of California's problem in the first place came from Pete Wilson. You won't solve that by backing more Pete Wilsons.
The country club Republicans have the money and the conservative Republicans have the votes. If they want to beat Gray Davis, they had better learn how to work together. Mainly, that means that the country clubbers have to give something, especially their insistence on pro-abortion, big-tent gibberish. Otherwise, the rank and file will walk, and Davis will easily be re-elected. Davis is vulnerable, but he will not be defeated unless the Republicans run an effective campaign.
What is there about this that Karl Rove doesn't understand? Either he backs Simon, and backs him wholeheartedly, and sends Bush in to raise money for him, or he will lose California. It's as simple as that. There's plenty of reason to think that Parksy is incapable of doing the job.