MSNBC: "Playing For A Win: Rove Maneuvers for GOP Victory In November"

[Human Torch]

White House upbeat about GOP prospects
Self-assurance of Rove, Bush and others is not shared by many in party

By Michael Abramowitz
The Washington Post
Updated: 1 hour, 55 minutes ago

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15269153/

Amid widespread panic in the Republican establishment about the coming midterm elections, there are two people whose confidence about GOP prospects strikes even their closest allies as almost inexplicably upbeat: President Bush and his top political adviser, Karl Rove.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill are bracing for losses of 25 House seats or more. But party operatives say Rove is predicting that, at worst, Republicans will lose only 8 to 10 seats — shy of the 15-seat threshold that would cede control to Democrats for the first time since the 1994 elections and probably hobble the balance of Bush's second term. In the Senate, Rove and associates believe, a Democratic victory would require the opposition to "run the table," as one official put it, to pick up the necessary six seats — a prospect the White House seems to regard as nearly inconceivable.

The Mark Foley page scandal and its fallout have many Republicans panicked, but Rove professes to be taking it in stride. "The data we are seeing from individual races and the national polls would tend to indicate that people can divorce Foley's personal action from the party," he said in a brief interview Thursday.

The official White House line of supreme self-assurance comes from the top down. Bush has publicly and privately banished any talk of losing the GOP majorities, in part to squelch any loss of nerve among his legions. Come January, he said last week, "We'll have a Republican speaker and a Republican leader of the Senate."



White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, second from left, listens to President Bush in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday along with, from left, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, national security adviser Stephen Hadley and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett.

[rosesaylavee]

1. Yeah, those guys look upbeat. n/t

[C_U_L8R]

4. why are they holding each others arms?

are they scared?

[rosesaylavee]

6. Keeps them from

visibly shaking.

I hope they get what they deserve...and in my lifetime. I hope they are scared.

[knowbody0]

2. they operate from an obscure place

where the mantra is "repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth". Now even THEY believe themselves. kinda funny

[Mojorabbit]

3. I think they are misreading fallout from the foley thing

I think a good part of the population of this country have been vaguely ill at ease at what this administration is doing. The Foley thing just gave them a simple point of focus for this unease that was uncomplicated and close to home. I don't think they see this.

[tsuki]

8. Exactly. n/t

[Hav]

5. .

Of course they are not saying that they will really lose. No party would say that even if they were far behind. I've seen it often and I think it's done because even if you are behind in the polls, you have to appear strong and as a winner. People don't vote for losers.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Doesn't anyone think he is saying thia because he knows the

vote is already determined in some races - BY STEALING - AGAIN. BY COERSION - AGAIN?

No one should forget how confident they were pre-November in some races we now believe were stolen. And can anyone forget the sneery confidence they displayed about the outcome of the militaryvote days before the election - maybe all of them since 2000.

[Evergreen Emerald]

11. I know...I feel the same way

We are no longer in a democracy. There was a coup and we lost. We just don't know it yet, and hold onto the election process as if it were real. I remember the last presidential election. All of the same criteria were used to predict a democratic win. That criteria, that had never been wrong historically, were suddenly wrong. I don't buy it. They were not wrong, the election was stolen.

I think they are confident that they will win, because they already have.

[Eurobabe]

9. Why KKKan't KKKarl just get run over by a bus?

I can't stand this fucking Pillsbury Dough Boy, Michelin Man-looking hack.

[sendero]

10. They are confident of a "win"..

.... just like they are confident of a "win" in Iraq. Their confidence is based on nothing more than self-serving delusion.

I'm sure Rove has some kind of tricks up his sleeve. I don't think they are likely to work, because all of his tricks are based on fooling people, and I think too many people no longer trust Bush** at all to be fooled by stupid pet tricks any more.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

12. Yeah and bush was gonna win california, too. It's more bluffing

and bullshit. They NEVER admit defeat or admit they are wrong.

[smomfr]

13. Body language and facial expressions say...........

we´re f**ked. It also looks like they are mentally trying to stop bush from saying somthing stupid. Good luck.