This Week: George Stephanopoulos Calls Rove a "McCain Advisor", Much To His Chagrin
By Nicole Belle Saturday May 24, 2008 6:30pm
Download | play 
Download | play (h/t Heather)
Like many of his species, Karl Rove prefers to operate in the shadows...quite literally, if you look at the poor lighting in ABC's This Week studios. So it caused no little discomfort when host George Stephanopoulos outed him as an advisor to the John McCain presidential campaign. That's right...the man who conceived of the "John McCain fathered an illegitimate black baby and he's crazy on top of that from his years as a POW" whisper campaigns is being invited to help the candidate attain the White House. Nice standards, John.
This isn't the first time Rove has dismissed his ties to the McCain campaign as just "chit-chat." But, as ThinkProgress has noted, his influence on the campaign is hard to deny:
- Rove's consulting firm has been disseminating 2008 electoral map projections to influential media outlets and party operatives. In late March, McCain media advisor Mark McKinnon participated in a public conversation about the campaign with former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. During the talk, McKinnon displayed maps analyzing the states and their electoral votes; the maps bore the header "Karl Rove & Co."
- At the beginning of April, McCain embarked on a biography tour to introduce himself to the public, which may have been Rove's idea. In an April 4 blog post, the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder noted that Rove had laid out the idea for such a tour during a Feb. 20 appearance at the University of Pennsylvania. Rove proceeded to list the very locations that McCain would eventually visit in April. (Although, McCain actually spoke in Prescott, AZ, rather than Rove's suggested Sedona, AZ.)
- On April 22, while doing on-air coverage of the Pennsylvania primary for Fox News, Rove let slip that he "saw Senator McCain recently at a private gathering" where the general election campaign was discussed.
By correctly identifying Rove as an informal McCain adviser, Stephanopoulos is making an appropriate disclosure that Rove's part-time employer, Fox News, has thus far been unwilling to do.
Login or Register to post comments.
How many times do you think this guy got his ass kicked in high school to turn him into such an evil monster?
No one seriously believes Rove isn't fully involved in this campaign do you?
I kinda like how George sort of throws Rove's "chit chat" response back in his face with "yah.... adviser."
I mean come on these guys aren't kidding when they said their goal is Permanent Neocon Rule.
I know Rove has, on several occasions vehemently denied the charge that he was behind that whisper campaign against Mc Cain. Do I think he was behind it? Very likely. However, I dislike it when the right wing makes up facts to pass of as indisputable truth, so I was wondering: is there any ACTUAL proof, ACTUAL evidence Rove was behind those smears?
Steve @ 5:
Proof?
There is no record of what these criminals have done.
They ignore legal calls to court, erase emails and lie whenever questioned.
The only proof of Rove linked with smears is his nickname and the skidmarks it denotes.
Two months from now, Karl Rove and Kenny Boy will be partying together in Paraguay.
Steve @ 5:
About as much actual proof as there is proof the powers-that-be (DNC and some of the sleaziest superdelegates that ever existed) have been seduced by little more than their belief that backing Obama means they will get their own personal ATM card to use at the Obama Money Machine.
Steve @ 5:
Who cares? This is a much more serious charge. He should already be in jail for outing Valerie Plame, but Merry Fitzmas was a let down.
Steve @ 5:
It's not like the whisper campaign is in question. Or the push polling that was done. Bush's campaign was behind the whisper campaign. That's not in question either--at least it wasn't to McCain in 2000. So, yeah, Rove was behind it, unless you think George hatched the campaign all on his own.
L.A. Confidential @ 8:
Oh. My. God. Give it up. Beyond delusional, it's old. It's pathetic. Let's focus on beating McCain.
Who cares, indeed. Rove can't be touched. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
It will be good for us to all see Rove get off. It will prove that the House no longer has any power, and American democracy has become a sham. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
heretic @ 13:
I don't understand this kind of defeatism or pleasure you take in trumpeting it. It's there's truly nothing to be done, then why do you bother broadcasting that? Eat, drink and be merry.
lilybelle @ 11:
We're not going to beat McCain if we're divided.
did you know that there are no term limits for vice president? most people think the 22nd amendment covers the vice president but it does not. i wonder who mcsame is going to chose for a running mate?
stonedog38 @ 16:
Thats a hard one
Where's his flag pin?
Yellow tie. Perfect.
TRAITOR
If there is a category of sociopathic deviance in the intelligence spectrum, KKKarl Rove would qualify as a genius.
Rove is the one criminal that I would most want to see do the perp scootin boogie..........uh, that is after Bush, Cheney Rumsfeld,Gonzales,DeLay,Hastert,Blunt,Boehner,Rice.........etc....etc.....
Rove should be in Oz in gen. pop. with a big cuddly cell-mate named Mooky the Ass Executioner.
I guess that squirming around underneath a rock is technically, "in the shadows."
... backing Obama means they will get their own personal ATM card to use
at the Obama Money Machine.
it's official... L.A. is definitely la la...
i hope it doesn't rub off on my son who finishes his post-doc in 3 years... is he safe?
KARL ROVE exposed, yet Faux Snooze spins the denials on and on...
here piggie piggie, watch him squeal!
How about "Snake-Oil Salesman"...or rather, just "Snake"!
rats and turds are found generally in the lowest and dankest of places. light is painful.
rove = STRIPE
JUST SHINE A LIGHT ON HIM FOR BEST RESULTS!
Such a lying, deceitful pig.
If these asswipes start immigrating to Paraguay, can we use a deck of cards to rank their importance for the bounty hunters like they did with the Saddam regime?? On second thought, we wouldn’t be able to use a regular deck, we’d have to use a pinochle deck because none of them would stand for being designated anything less than a 9.
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
*fixed it!*
Roket @ 27:
As far as I'm concerned, Karl Rove is Public Enemy Number One.
The only picture of Rove I want to see is a mug shot when he is booked.
I'm so surprised that C & L hasn't posted this bit of incredible nastiness yet:
Osama, er, Obama
Boycott Fox! Hell, yank their broadcasting license. How much worse does it have to get?
BennyP @ 1:
It probably started in jr. high.
Stephanopoulous had better watch his back. "The Path To 9/11 Network" doesn't take kindly to its "journalists" doing anything to inconvenience the GOP or its operatives.
should it read Clinton advisor?
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
Yeah. Democracy is about first fighting for one's own POV; but then, once the issue is decided, supporting the majority vote. That's what the concept of "loyal opposition" is about. [BTW, I used to respect Bob Dole. But he trashed that when, after Clinton's victory, he told the press (not exact quote, but close) "I'll work to see that he isn't successful." An American citizen will work to sabotage the democratically elected executive? Might not be treason, but it's definitely unproductive and unpatriotic. That's not how democracy works.]
So let's focus on the bad guys. Fox fired a lowly production assistant for admitting on air that she was a McSame fan. However, in the past two general elections, Sean Hannity accepted paid gigs to lead pep rallies for Bush. Karl Rove is not just a supporter of the McSame campaign, but an active adviser. So why haven't these guys been fired? Yeah. Fat chance.
But what's the charade anyhow? Every rational adult knows that Fox is the main propaganda organ for the neocons. And every informed adult remembers the day-long continuous anti-Kerry bombadment Disney-owned ABC radio broadcast in New York and probably elsewhere as well. (Can't control wife, daughter, and granddaughter--but I personally will never, ever again willingly contribute to anything with Disney's name on it.)
Carl Rove ... Poster-Boy for the GOP ... Fat, Greasy, Lying and Deceitful.
Can't wait until another article is posted so I don't have to look at the man who helped destroy America.
Rove is not really brilliant. He is brilliantly ruthless, however. Anybody could achieve what he's achieve if they were as scheming, heartless, and unprincipled, and could sleep at night no matter what awful things they had done.
So Rove is advising both McCain and Hillary?
The OTHER Big Problem With Hillary's Notorious Remarks.
Will some fake drug scandal help her win?
Brown had made plenty of trouble for Clinton, coming out of the pack to end up as the rather distant runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination. Running against political corruption, the former two-term governor of California won several big primary and caucus victories over Clinton. Accepting no contribution over $100, in this pre-Internet campaign Brown used an earlier form of interactive technology and funded his run with an 800 number, mentioning the number so often that then NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, a family friend, tried to cut him off during a TV appearance.
Brown's surge against Clinton halted after a fake drug scandal broke on ABC. There was nothing actually there -- one key source who appeared on Nightline later admitted that the Brown fundraiser he dramatically said he'd attended where drug-taking took place was a big Eagles concert in the 1970s where some fans smoked marijuana -- but the information provided to the network was packaged cleverly enough to produce a lot of short-term smoke. As it were. Funny how such things happen not infrequently around Bill and Hill's campaigns
Which part of this pissed of Karl - that he was called an advisor, that he was called McCain's advisor or that he was not referred to as Emperor Karl the First?
My money is on the third.
This little piggy went wee wee wee...all the way home!....to jail, I hope!
ROVE AND THE GOP THAT WOULD NEVER DIE......
........................SORRY ASSWIPE... DIED ! ! ! ! ! ! !
THEY CREATED THE BEST BACKLASH OF HATRED FOR THE GOP THAT ANYONE COULD EVER HAVE WISHED FOR.....
........................GO KARL GO KARL GO KARL ! ! ! !!
REMEMBER TO ALWAYS CALL HIM JOHN "THE REPUBLICAN" MCCAIN...
HIS HANDLERS AND KARL HATE IT WHEN YOU LINK THE MAN AND THE PARTY
watching these people for longer than a two-minute clip gives me a sick feeling, like my feet have come loose from the floor.
i don't know how you people with cable/satellite stand it.
karen marie @ 43:
Agreed. That's why I just watch for the relevant clips here.
What's worse is that people actually PAY for this shit. Me, all I have is a 13" TV with rabbit ears.
Gretchen @ 40:
The only thing that should be pissing off KKKarl is that he missed a chow call from the prison warden.
Old Mc Cain had a farm, EIEIO, and a pig named Karl lived on that farm, EIEIO---with an oink oink here and oink oink there--here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink oink....
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
Do you have multiple personalities? "We're not going to beat McCain if we're divided" Your posts are all about being divisive. The abject lack of respect you show Obama, who has won fair and square playing by the rules, is disgusting. If you're truly concerned with "division" take care of the divide between your ears and stop sending psychotic mixed messages
I can't stand watching this evil creep. The only way he should be giving any commentary is from inside a prison. They should put his picture beside the word creep in the dictionary.
If Stephanopoulos had any guts, he would have asked Rove if he's NOT and an adviser for MCain the same way he wasn't involved in turning the Justice Dept into a political hit squad.
It's the typical way flip-flopping, criminal, Reslugs do things.
Take a look at him! Rove is morphing more and more into a porcine operative.
No offense to real porcines.
And meanwhile lil' Georgie S. remains an informal adviser to the Clintons ...
Don't be ridiculous. Rove is working for Hillary, not McCain.
"Chit-Chat"?!?! Asswipe!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a question. Why is Karl Rove not in jail for refusing to comply with a House supoena? Who does he think he is? What makes this situation so much different than Judith Miller not revealing her sources? The fact that he is prancing around the TV/Internet dial tells the American public that there is zero accountability. No wonder we have a 50% voting percentage for electing our presidents.
Login or Register to post comments.