Rove: Iraq Didn't Play “The Critical, Central Role” In The Elections...

[CatWoman]

will someone please shut this stupid fucker up?

The Architect Speaks
Posted by Mike Allen | E-Mail This | Permalink | Comments (0)

After maintaining a relentless optimism in the face of ominous polls, Karl Rove tells TIME why Republicans wound up taking a bath on Election Night.

BY MIKE ALLEN/WASHINGTON

At the White House senior staff meeting in the Roosevelt Room at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten thanked Karl Rove for his hard work in the elections, and the group around the big table burst into spontaneous applause. It was a much-needed moment of cheer for Rove, the President's chief strategist, after Republicans lost the House and were headed toward the same fate in the Senate in midterm congressional elections that turned into a blue rip tide of voter ire.

"The profile of corruption in the exit polls was bigger than I'd expected," Rove tells TIME. "Abramoff, lobbying, Foley and Haggard added to the general distaste that people have for all things Washington, and it just reached critical mass."

Exit polls showed heavy discontent with the course of the war, and Bush announced the departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the next day. But Rove took comfort in results of the Connecticut Senate race between the anti-war Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary over his support for the war. "Iraq mattered," Rove says. "But it was more frustration than it was an explicit call for withdrawal. If this was a get-out-now call for withdrawal, then Lamont would not have been beaten by Lieberman. Iraq does play a role, but not the critical, central role."

And he does not believe his data let him down. "My job is not to be a prognosticator," he said. "My job is not to go out there and wring my hands and say, 'We're going to lose.' I'm looking at the data and seeing if I can figure out, Where can we be? I told the President, 'I don't know where this is going to end up. But I see our way clear to Republican control.' "

Rove, who is Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to the President, had long been warning in speeches that Democrats suffered defeat in 1994 after ossified thinking and an entitlement mentality took over the party: "What I was trying to say was: What happened to them could happen to us," he told TIME.

http://time-blog.com/allen_report/

[wholetruth00]

1. Rove is the next evildoer to go.

[madokie]

21. he'll be back but under different circumstances, a defendant

[Vidar]

41. Maybe Carville can succeed him.

[Actionman]

2. please let them talk, it allows us to see real WHINNING at it's best

all denial of them not being SUPERIOR... oh yeah, your statement about him talking :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[napi21]

3. I'd love to know what they REALLY think when no one is around.

Many, many, campaign consultants have been kicked aside when their plan failed as badly as Rover's did. I know Poppy never liked Rover, and since Shrub is bringing in all Poppy's old friends to save his arse AGAIN, I'm thinking the Rover just could be on his way out!

[enuffs_enuffs]

4. "What happened to them could happen to us,"...

Yah, given 6 years of the absolute worst in govt.

Meb'be rove needs to apply the ol' jaundiced eye once again.

[msongs]

5. good karl, blame the homosexuals, just like goebbels did nt

[Actionman]

10. how will their base feel when they hear about MelSheMan

and others who have alternate life styles POSING as the so called moral righteous...

[stop the bleeding]

6. "The profile of corruption in the exit polls was bigger than I'd expected," - No motherfucker

that is not it, unless you are incredibly stupid.

What you really want(ed) to say is -- "I think the American people are too stupid to realize how corrupt we/the GOP are."

Rover - THE GAME IS UP - IT IS OVER. :D

[Patsy Stone]

7. Oh, he's just a used up sack of crap.

I like this deflection the most:

"Abramoff, lobbying, Foley and Haggard added to the general distaste that people have for all things Washington, and it just reached critical mass."

See, the people were fed up with "all things Washington", not the Republicans caught in the scandals. I'm sure we all know that it's all things Washington that has a problem.

Karl? If Americans were fed up with "all things Washington", then I imagine at least ONE Dem would have lost their seat. Loser.

Game.Set.Match.

[Disturbed]

11. Rove is not a genius. He is an evil Asshole.

He kows damn well that most Americans finally woke up and smelled the stench of failure on all levels of the Busholini Regime. Americans forgive a lot but they don't reward losers.

[Patsy Stone]

23. True enough

Unless they're "lovable losers", and these guys are most certainly not lovable.

[dansolo]

35. Rove slipped up here

Notice how he grouped Haggard in with "all things Washington", after the White House tried to disassociate themselves from Haggard after his scandals erupted.

[Patsy Stone]

42. That's a very good catch!

:thumbsup:

[opihimoimoi]

8. Don't that man get it?? The GOP lost because their basic Philosophy is full of CRAP

They didn'y do what they said they WERE going to do. Failure...No Touchdowns in 6 years...all 72 games...not a point...

Thatsa some kinda Coachin we got.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

9. Yeah and he secret polls showing the republicans holding both houses

and W is gonna win California
and
and
and . . .
he's a bullshitter of the 1st degree

[Actionman]

13. got him a lil more time in the house... now deflecting to save his seat

[porphyrian]

12. What Rove Says: No longer of consequence. - n/tr

[bigtree]

14. It was almost everything

sadly, the high number of soldiers lives lost drove opposition to the war . . .

[Rex]

15. Oh Karl, you should have stayed under that plane tire.

Surly even you have to see what a bumblefuck you are in the eyes of your 'peers'? No man could be that blind.

You exceed Bush in failure, wow.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Rove is a better liar when he leaves it to other people to tell the lies

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Every voter I talked to said the Iraq War was #1

Rove is just blowing smoke, spinning, and playing their latest game.

[sandnsea]

24. I heard both

I kind of agree with Rove a wee bit. If it had just been Iraq and only Iraq, I don't know that people would have thought there was any reason to vote for the Democrat because Bush is the one in charge after all. BUT, because they saw all the corruption and incompetence, from Foley to Abramoff to KATRINA, they realized something had to be done with this White House. It wasn't JUST Iraq, it was the realization that they were too corrupt and incompetent to FIX Iraq. Conservatism got a swift kick in the ass, no matter how they try to spin it otherwise.

[Warren Stupidity]

27. I did not say only Iraq, I said Iraq was at the top.

Rove takes it right off the table and talks about 'corruption in Washington', as if this were a bipartisan matter. They have been trying to play the 'we's all corrupt here' angle ever since Abramoff started breaking.

Everything rove says or does is intended to improve their position.

[sandnsea]

30. Aaaah, I get your point

Good good point too. Of course they want it to be an anti-DC election instead of anti-Republican. It's just not.

[Warren Stupidity]

32. And on the same note...

their little 'K Street Project' essentially locked the Democrats out of the corporate gravy train. So it is not that our party was pure of heart and that is why we were not generally tarnished by the still-to-be-told tale of massive corrupt practices on capitol hill, it is that we had no access to the loot.

[dansolo]

37. Look at the incumbants who lost

Did any incumbant Democrats lose their seats? If corruption was the main factor, then it clearly was solely a Republican issue.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

18. David Brooks on News Hour said that Rove's theory failed. Here

is what Rove's theory was, that the populace is divided, there is no middle ground. Rove, never calculated the middle, the independents and the moderates, he thought everyone's mind was as rigid as the his, never to be changed.

Well, I say, Thank God for arrogance and stupidity. It was the polarization of America that took me from a wishy washy Rep. to a die hard Dem.. I have voted straight ticket Dem for the last 6 years, something that I hadn't done before, never straight ticket.

I remember my first Democratic Club meeting, I was told that I was one of the few that switched Dem not the opposite, during the Clinton witch hunt. I get the feeling that Rove just created the reverse situation, and remember new converts are really, really committed!

[H2O Man]

19. Gosh.

Karl lying.

[AlienGirl]

20. America to Rove: "Rove, you are irrelevant."

[eleny]

22. bullshit - he's still lying

Just yesterday, Thom Hartmann was quoting exit polls from data he found on DU from election night. *ALL* the exit polls except for Virginia and Montana were in alignment with election results.

Rove is lying. And he still thinks were all a bunch of tiddlywinks waiting for his thumb to send us flying.

[4theheart]

25. Fuzzy math?

But..But..I thought he was entitled to THE math??? LOL

[eleny]

29. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[newyawker99]

33. Hi 4theheart!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[UTUSN]

26. O.K., did "FUCK YOU ROVE" play any significant part in anything??? n/t

[blogslut]

28. Lieberman won

...because all your Repub minions voted for him, Karl.

Go have fun lying for Rudy you blood-gorged tick.

[Marr]

31. Who cares what losers think?

He's yesterday's news. The only way Rove should be featured in a newspaper is if it's a report on his subpoena.

[NYYFan]

34. So much for "the math", huh Herr KKKarl ?

STFU !! You lost because of all of the above. Period.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

36. Arrogant fuck tries to tell the nation WHY he lost, after insisting he'd win.

Where's your damn math now?

Karl is completely irrelevant now.

[Binka]

38. That Nasty Shitdustbag Is ALWAYS Trying To Explain His Failures

Shad up you ass carrot NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

39. It's amazing how much pent up rage, and profanity, this election has unleashed in me, LOL.

But it feels good, right about now.

I hope your boy is okay, Binka.

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. The ARCHITECT

:rofl: