When they attack a politician for being too old, they are not just attacking the sacred memory of Saint Ronald of Reagan, they are also attacking their own base.
May 19, 2014

George Stephanopoulos opened up ABC's Powerhouse Roundtable with Karl Rove's attacks on Hillary Clinton this past week. George then asked Kristol if he thought it was a clever move by Rove and Bloody Bill responded by quickly dissing Bush's brain and saying it wasn't a very shrewd move on his part.

Stephanopoulos: And Bill, let me begin with you. You know Karl Rove pretty well. Was this a shrewd move by Karl, or did he kind of overstep?

Kristol: I don't think it was a particularly shrewd move. I mean, we'll see how Secretary Clinton's health is. She'll be out there campaigning, presumably. She will -- I imagine her health will be fine. But in any case, people can see for themselves. So there's no reason for Karl Rove to speculate about it.asked Bill Kristol if Karl Rove was smart by attacking her

Rove has had his supporters like the sycophants on Fox News, but there are others that have been vilifying him for it. Rove has become something of a laughing stock now after his meltdown on Fox News during the 2012 election night when he challenged Fox News' own electoral breakdowns that showed Obama was winning Ohio.

However, are the conservatives attacking him just doing it to look reasonable?

Digby has a good take on this phenomenon posted at Salon: Newt and Karl’s latest trick: Inside their good cop-bad cop routine:

However, this line of attack is very risky for the GOP and they do appear to realize it. After all, when they attack a politician for being too old, they are not just attacking the sacred memory of Saint Ronald of Reagan, they are also attacking their own base. They are the party of older white people. Going after Hillary Clinton for being too old might not set right with some of them, especially the women. (And Republicans have enough trouble with that half of the population already, thank you very much.)

This is why they’ve fashioned a good cop-bad cop routine that’s about as believable as Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Bad cop Karl Rove stormed into the room, slammed his hands down on the table and hurled his accusations about Clinton’s so-called brain damage. He luridly went on and on about blood clots and secret hospital stays, implying that Clinton was hiding a very serious brain impairment of some sort...read on

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