retrospective - Karl Rove-All Your Bible Are Belong to Us -

All Your Bible Are Belong to Us - Waiting for Karl Rove´s
Counter-attack

By forkfail
October 1, 2004


Initial results from last night´s debate are in, and they are
looking fairly good for John Kerry. In general, observers of the
debate felt that Kerry did better overall than did Bush [1] [3].
Both seemed to accomplish their aims: Bush was able to reiterate
his emotion based sermon to the faithful of safety against fear of
terror and war in a world where all evil was linked together, and
John Kerry was able to wrack intellectual havoc on Bush´s reasoning
and arguments. However, it seems that both Americans and the world
at large found George W. Bush´s appeal to emotion was not as strong
as John Kerry´s arguments [2].

As neither side scored a knockout, however, many would consider the
debate to be something of a draw [3]. While a number of undecided
voters were swayed, George W. Bush probably lost only a tiny
percentage of his faithful voting base. However, even with the
conventional wisdom that a draw is a win for the incumbent, there is
no doubt that Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush political handlers
will let things lie as they are.

Immediately after the debates, both the Kerry campaign [4] and the
Bush Campaign [6] put their own spin on the debate [5] [7]. Yet the
Bush spin seemed rather weak - perhaps because of Republican
candidate´s showing during the debate. The Bush web site chose four
main points to attack concerning what John Kerry said, including the
fact that John Kerry was mistaken about the subway having to be
closed during the RNC. Of course, while the subway was indeed not
closed, the orange alert declared for the convention cost the state
of New Jersey 6.5 million dollars, a good chunk of which was used by
the New Jersey Department of Transportation [8]. This above and
beyond the 234 million dollars in federal grants provided over the
last three years to New Jersey for anti-terrorism [8].

So, while indeed Senator Kerry did make a factual mistake concerning
security during the RNC, it was hardly a critical gaff. What is
ironic is that the Bush web site also criticizes Senator Kerry for
admitting that he did make a mistake in the way he spoke about the
allocations for the War in Iraq. Given how George W. Bush still
clings tenaciously to his belief in a black and white cartoon world
of absolutes, this criticism, like the criticism of the subway
mistake, can only be seen as being weak and feeble at best.

It is important to note, however, that the lack of logic upon which
the attacks brought about by the Bush campaign against Senator Kerry
is not a critical failing to the Bush campaign, which applies more
upon appeal to emotion than any intellectual, rational argument.
The Bush campaign simultaneously spreads fear of a terror threat
that it links together with a threat of weapons of mass destruction
in rogue states, regardless of what the actual evidence turns out to
be. For example, today, Secretary of State Collin Powel was forced
to admit that there were no WMD in Iraq - and yet, the Bush campaign
still insists that attacking Iraq was a good thing [9].

However, even an appeal to emotion [10] needs to be bolstered up by
at least the semblance of a factual basis, or it will crumble.
Given how weak the attacks against what Senator Kerry said during
the debate and the crumbling facade of a successful war in Iraq [11]
[12] [13], the Bush political team under Karl Rove will have no
choice to but to act.

It is easy to imagine Karl Rove [14] sitting at his desk, going
through a file marked, "Tricks, Dirty and Underhanded." Lets take a
peek into what Karl just might be pull out of his arsenal of proven
tricks and strategies that appeared during campaigns that his
candidates were running against. Though of course, little can be
proven about Mr. Rove and some of these attacks, there is a
consistant pattern in the attacks that seem to spring up out of
nowhere against the opponents of his candidates [14] [15].

* There was an incident with a planted microphone that showed up in
Karl Rove´s office, and wound up deciding the election during Texas
Governor Bill Clements´ 1986 re-election campaign [14]. But this
was pretty minor compared to what was coming.

* Then there was the incident where Jim Hightower, who was a
political foe of Karl Rove during a campaign for Texas, wound up
being destroyed through allegations of a kickback scheme [14]. But
this was still warm-up for the Man with the Plan.

* Rove destroyed another opponent by alerting the press to the fact
that Lena Guerrero, a rising star in the Texas Democratic Party, had
lied about graduating from college [14]. By now, Rove´s file of
dirty tricks was becoming something to be feared in the political
arena.

* And how can one forget the whisper campaign against Ann Richards
during the 1994 Texas gubernatorial race that managed to paint Ann
Richards as a lesbian [14] [15]. The pattern was now firmly
established - Bush, Rove´s candidate by now - took the high road,
while other sources, which of course could not be proved to be
connected to the campaign, not only took the low road, but dug a
trench where the low road had been.

* And now, Rove and his acolytes and partisans were ready for the
big time. John McCain took a three pronged attack during the 2000
Republican primaries. He was accused of having a love child because
he and his wife had adopted a minority orphan [18], he was accused
of being mentally unstable because of his time spent in POW camps
[16] [17], and he was accused of being un-patriotic and anti-veteran
[15]. Just like the attacks against Senator Kerry during the 2004
campaign, George Bush did not denounce these attacks, nor did he
discourage them in any way [15] [16] [17].

* Once George W. Bush was the republican candidate, the dirty
tricks appeared to have started against Al Gore. For example, there
was the video tape of Bush practicing for his debate that appeared
at the Gore campaign - a loose-loose situation for Gore, no matter
what. [20]

* And recently, of course, there were the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth [19] - or the Not-so-Swift Liars for Bush, depending on what
you want to believe. It cannot be denied, however, that this group
fits to a ´T´ the pattern set by events surrounding the opponents of
Rove´s other clients.

* And just this last month, there was the direct mailing by the RNC
of fliers in Arkansas and West Virginia that warned Republican
voters that Democrats would ban the Bible, and encourage gay unions
[21]. The RNC admittd that they did the mailing [22], and it is
known that Karl Rove [14] is the master of the direct mailing
campaign. Of course, as per usual, there is no provable link
there - it is just one more dirty, sickening trick that got played
in a campaign in which Karl Rove was involved.

So, with this kind of arsonel to draw from, one wonders from what
quarter the next dirty trick attack will come? Will it be a whisper
campaign? Or maybe a frivolous lawsuit. Perhaps it will be an
allegation of wrong doing from an unexpected quarter.

There is little doubt but that there will be such an attack: Karl
Rove and the other Bush political advisors cannot stand idly by
while their candidate loses ground. Given Bush´s showing in the
debates, given recent events in Iraq and on the world stage, and the
press coverage of those events and the actions and rationalizations
leading up to them, and given the state of the U.S. economy and the
state of other domestic issues, there is no other place or manner
for the Bush political team to attack.

However, John Kerry has shown his strength and character during the
smears directed at him during this campaign, and it appears that he
may be one of the few to emerge victorious from a battle in which
Karl Rove commands the political forces of the opposition.


[1]
[link to edition.cnn.com]

[2]
[link to news.yahoo.com]

[3]
[link to abcnews.go.com]

[4] [link to www.johnkerry.com]

[5] [link to blog.johnkerry.com]

[6] [link to www.georgewbush.com]

[7] [link to www.georgewbush.com]

[8]
[link to www.nj.com]

[9]
[link to news.yahoo.com]

[10] [link to www.fallacyfiles.org]

[11] [link to us.oneworld.net]

[12]
[link to www.sfgate.com]

[13]
[link to www.nydailynews.com]

[14] Karl Rove: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, by
Moore, James and Slater, Wayne, 2003, ISBN 0471423270

[15]
[link to sfgate.com]

[16] [link to slate.msn.com]

[17] [link to www.texnews.com]

[18]
[link to www.wnyc.org]

[19] [link to www.swiftvets.com]

[20]
[link to www.cnn.com]

[21]
[link to news.yahoo.com]

[22]
[link to news.yahoo.com]