Monday, October 30, 2006

Rove Loads Up On Pine Tar

Is Karl Rove dillusional, putting up a brave front or is he up to something rotten, again? Today's Washington Post has an article about the stakes Rove faces to his legacy on November 7th and the relatively happy demeanor the mad scientist of the Republican party is exhibiting.

"I believe Karl Rove," [Chief of Staff, Joshua] Bolten said in an interview in his West Wing office Friday. "Karl Rove, somewhere inside that massive brain of his, has figured out the political landscape more clearly than the entire collection of conventional-wisdom pundits and pollsters in the entire city of Washington."

Bolten believes Rove. Does he? Exactly what does Rove know that the rest of us don't?

The entire scene conjures up a nightmare of swirling chads and flaming voting machines. Is this a bluff on Rove's part because it sounds familiar to what Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry told the New York Times in reference to the Smudgegate controversy involving the Tigers Kenny Rogers. Perry told Jack Curry that getting his opponent to believe he was cheating was half the battle. Perry had opposing hitters scrambling to find elusive smoking gun rather than concentrating on hitting his fastball.

In both 2000 and 2004, the Democrats were more interested in uncovering Rove's dirty tricks than they were in running effective campaigns against his client, President Bush.

Rove may or may not have something sinister up his sleeve come next Tuesday, but that's the point and it's where he derives most of his exulted status in the GOP. If the Democrats narrowly lose a chance at gaining the Senate will it be Rove's doing? Will the voting machines in Tennessee breakdown and if they do will this be where Rove takes his smug confidence from? Or maybe the filthy ads in the senate race really turned out conservatives against Rep. Harold Ford.

The point is on election day, check Karl Rove's hands for any "clumps of dirt".

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