White House political operative Karl Rove told a Republican rally in Ohio Monday that Democrats faded from national power because the GOP has claimed the "mantle of idealism" over the past 40 years. "It has been a remarkable rise," Rove said, "but it also is a cautionary tale about what can happen to a dominant political party when its thinking becomes ossified." He said the GOP was nearly dead in 1964, after Democrat Lyndon Johnson crushed Barry Goldwater. He predicted it could be on the cusp of a political realignment that will leave it in power for a generation. Rove,...
