Bob Novak reports that Karl Rove believes he knows how to get the GOP back on solid ground.
Karl Rove, President Bush’s political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party’s defeat in the 2006 elections.
Rove’s clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture of Washington. Specifically, Republican candidates are urged to make clear they have no connection with disgraced congressmen such as Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley.
In effect, Rove was rebutting the complaint inside the party that George W. Bush is responsible for Republican miseries by invading Iraq.
You’ll remember, of course, that this is the same Rove who assured Republican candidates in 2006 that Dems couldn’t possibly win back both chambers of Congress. When pushed before the elections about the polls favoring Dems, Rove told NPR that he’d found a secret math that gives him insights that mere mortals can’t comprehend.
And yet, Rove’s still at it, telling ‘08 candidates not to worry too much about all of that unpleasantness in Iraq. I’m not sure why the GOP candidates would listen to Rove’s advice, but if Dems are really lucky, the myth of Rove’s genius will lead Republicans to misread the landscape and take Turd Blossom’s advice.
