Karl Rove and his pals have systematically set out to make Republicans with integrity an endangered species.That's from digby over the weekend. Digby may well be the smartest man on the intertubes; even so, you might think that, perhaps, his thinking about Karl Rove is just so much hyperbole.
But it's hard not to think that he's dead-on. Digby specifically is writing about the suspicious firing of eight US attorneys who weren't playing the game right. (Look, I know that Clinton fired all of Bush I's appointees. But Bush II fired all of Clinton's appointees. So shut up about that.) When you weigh the evidence--as digby does with, for example, David Iglesias--you see people of high moral and ethical standards railroaded out (thanks to the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act) in favor of toadies, in one case, literally, a Karl Rove protègè. And elbow-deep in those firings is Rove himself. (More from Josh Marshall.)
And it's hard not to think about Rove's influence on contemporary conservative politics when you read things like this post from David at Carrick Bend (language warning, via Wiggy). It isn't so much David's use of the Coulter f-word (and his defense of her use of it), but rather his demonization of conservatives who thought Coulter crossed a line there:
Who are you idiots again? Conservatives? Hell no. You are flaming liberals.The single worst insult David can think to throw at people who don't meet his infantile standards of conservatism is liberal, though none of the targets of his wrath come close to being accurately described as such. But this is a clear Rovism; demonize everyone who disagrees with you, until you have no allies left. There's a reason Bush's poll numbers haven't seen the bright side of 40% in years, and it's this attitude--perpetuated at the White House by Rove. If you keep cutting off people who might be your natural allies, you end up pretty lonely. Some day the Carrick Bend guy is going to look around and wonder where his friends are.
Well, him and Karl Rove.
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