Free Republic

Dick Morris is out at Fox News, but Karl Rove is in. The future of the republic does not hinge on this development, but the divergence in the conservative commentators’ fates is nevertheless telling. Both, after all, had issued spectacularly wrong predictions on who would win last November’s presidential race. (Mitt Romney in a landslide!) Both were adamant, night after night, that their data were rock solid. On election night, Mr. Rove went so far as to challenge Fox News’ decision to call Ohio for President Obama, which effectively called the election. In the most entertaining bit of TV all...

Karl Rove versus Steve King. Rove was one of President Bush's top advisors, but now Iowa's open Senate seat has one of America's top Republican operatives gearing up to fight one of his own, vetting candidates who have a history of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And, that apparently includes Congressman Steve King. Steven Law, the CEO of American Crossroads, told the New York Times: "We're concerned about Steve King's Todd Akin problem....All of the things he's said are going to be hung around his neck," says Law. Law is apparently referring to comments King made to...

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) is starting his own super-PAC to counter a group conservatives fear will protect establishment candidates from primary challenges. The tweet by Walsh, the outspoken former congressman, is in response to the creation of the Conservative Victory Project, a super-PAC being launched by Karl Rove, formerly a top adviser to President George W. Bush. The founders of the Rove super-PAC intend to engage in GOP primary races and back the most electable candidate. The group argues that a number of untested conservative candidates made it through 2012 primaries, only to lose in the general election. The...

For anyone who sees Mitt Romney's loss in the November presidential election as a harbinger of GOP decline, conservatives have a message - make that two, tellingly conflicting, messages. One, embodied by the Conservative Victory Project (CVP) - a group backed by Karl Rove's "super PAC" seeking to curb influence from far-right organizations - and spelled out Tuesday by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.: Our olive branch is ripe, Democrats, and with the right legislation, we're willing to compromise. The other, perhaps best summarized in paperwork filed today by ousted Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., to create a "super PAC"...

When given the opportunity to rebut the sharp criticism leveled Tuesday by Brent Bozell directed at Karl Rove, Jonathan Collegio of Rove's American Crossroads might have made things worse, if not personal. "Bozell is a hater and he also has a long sordid history hating Karl Rove. He has weird personal axes to grind," said the spokesman for Rove's influential Super PAC.

When a person amasses too much power, they often believe they are indestructible. What Karl Rove and company did last week in the New York Times, claiming that their new “Conservative Victory Project” would cure the ills of a disappointing campaign cycle, is laughable. The so-called “Conservative Victory Project” is nothing more than an attempt by establishment Republicans to cull the conservative movement. Why does Rove think he has a monopoly on wanting to win? At least Karl Rove and company are finally out front with their disdain for the conservative movement, and I am thankful for it. The battle...

From last night’s “Hannity,” here’s the man himself responding to that NYT piece that set conservative media (and grassroots fundraisers) on fire. He’s eager to note how many tea-party candidates he’s supported in the past, both through American Crossroads and his own checkbook, but there’s still no answer to the key question: ...... But then, we’re assuming that Rove’s main goal, and American Crossroads’s goal more broadly, is to boost establishment candidates. Is it? .... Some donors will walk away, but not all. And by backing the most “electable” candidate in every primary, CPV now has a prefab defense to...

"Thank God for Mark Levin, who tells it like it is, depressing as it is."

The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate. The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races. “There is a broad concern about having blown...

Honest Abe hasn’t been resting in peace. Abe’s institution of emancipation has devolved into a rancorous mess, with its members divided into three factions. Unlike their competitor party, which is 90% aligned on policy, the GOP has become an indoor shooting range. I have long said Republicans are marksmen because it takes this much skill to repeatedly shoot yourself in the foot. The elephant’s carcass is carved-up into three hefty chunks. There is the Lincoln Legacy faction – the original progressives if you will – who have libertarian leanings. Marginalized for decades, they have recently been rejuvenated by the relative...

Establishment Republicans like Karl Rove has diluted what is supposed to be the conservative principles and message of the Republican Party. In a misguided attempt to 'appeal to moderates', Rove and his ilk have alienated conservatives within the Republican Party and sent the Democrats a clear message. They have no spine. Rove has some nerve attacking a movement that infused the right with such enthusiasm that it gave the Republican Party its biggest gains in 2010. If he wants to point the finger of blame at anyone, he needs only look in the mirror for it was Rove that was...

Discredited political consultant, blathering TV talking head, and big-bux fundraiser/PAC-man Karl Rove was once hailed by George W Bush as 'The Architect' in the wake of the 2004 campaign victory he had engineered. In retrospect, we'd probably have been better off in the long-term letting John Kerry try and deal with the earthshaking real estate collapse his Dems' own affirmative-action housing initiatives were soon to bring us. Instead, Rove -as White House Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief-of-Staff- resided over a Bush 2nd-term popularity dive so steep and so politically damaging to the GOP brand that the United States seems to have shifted...

Two powerful conservative groups say a new American Crossroads’ initiative, formed to work against Republican candidates it deems unelectable, is just another attempt to muzzle the GOP’s true base. American Crossroads, a super PAC founded by a group led by former Bush White House advisor Karl Rove, was the largest Republican super PAC of the 2012 election cycle. The idea behind the PAC’s latest effort is to intensely vet prospective contenders for Congressional races to weed out candidates who are seen as too flawed to win general elections, The New York Times reported Sunday. The new organization, the Conservative Victory...

We’ve had a wide variety of conservative: the neo-cons, the paleo-cons and most recently the crunchy cons. Have you ever noticed how many of the most prominent conservative voices in America sound more like liberals? I have, and I believe they are in class all their own: they have a special mission and fit a particular profile. They are what I like to call ‘kept cons.’ They are ‘kept’ by liberals in that kept cons generally work for liberal institutions and seem to fill the role of token...

The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party has begun. On one side is the Tea Party. On the other side stands Karl Rove and his establishment team, posing as tacticians while quietly undermining conservatism. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the “biggest donors in the Republican Party” have joined forces with Karl Rove and Steven J. Law, president of American Crossroads, to create the Conservative Victory Project. The Times reports that this new group will dedicate itself to “recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who...

Karl Rove enlivened Fox News Channel's election coverage last year by questioning the network's declaration that Barack Obama had been re-elected. It hasn't affected Fox's desire to keep him on the air. The network announced Thursday that it had signed Rove to a new contract as a contributor. The deal runs through the 2016 election.

The Romney campaign spent an estimated $356 million between January 1, 2011 and October 17, 2012 in its unsuccessful effort to defeat incumbent President Barack Obama. According to Federal Election Commission documents, as reported by OpenSecrets.org, $33 million of this amount was paid to two consulting firms with ties to key staffers at both the Romney campaign and the RNC. Targeted Victory LLC, a Minnesota company with executive offices in Virginia, was paid $17 million for digital communications by the Romney campaign. FLS Connect LLC, an Arizona corporation with headquarters in Minnesota, was paid $16 million for voter contact and...

Karl Rove taken off the air as Fox News distances themselves from conservative pundit after his Election Night tantrum Karl Rove has officially been benched as Fox News chief Roger Ailes has reportedly suspended the Republican operative from their airwaves. Rove and Dick Morris, a fellow paid political analyst, have been temporarily banned from appearing on Fox News as the network tries to distance themselves from the two men whose election predictions ended up being so far from the result. New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman reports that Ailes decided that it is important for Fox News to take a step...

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 | Posted by WorldTribune.com 2012′s high-stakes spin war: George Soros won, Karl Rove lost Special to WorldTribune.com By Cliff Kincaid Fox News contributor Karl Rove was criticized in the media for objecting to the channel calling Ohio for Barack Obama on election night. The state of Ohio did in fact go for Obama and the channel was correct in making that prediction. Like many other Fox News commentators, Rove had mistakenly forecast a Romney victory. He was only alone in thinking this was still possible as election night wore on and the results from Ohio came...

New York's Gabriel Sherman reports that Fox News is scaling back airtime for Republican pundit Karl Rove, in what appears to be a reprimand for Rove's meltdown during the network's live election broadcast. Sources told Sherman that Fox News chief Roger Ailes has ordered his staff to bench Rove and his fellow GOP pundit Dick Morris, two of the network's most vocal partisan voices whose predictions turned out to be spectacularly wrong. According to Sherman, producers must now get permission before booking Rove or Morris on Fox shows. The move comes as Fox takes steps to rehab its image in the wake...