Once again, Karl Rove is kicking the Democrats’ ass. This happens with disturbing regularity, and even though I’m an Independent, I can’t stand it. So how is that the Democrats themselves are fine with the ass-kicking?
“Tell me where I should stand, Mr. Rove, so you can have the best shot at me. Do you want me to look weak, indecisive, or unfocused? If you want all three, no problem. We Democrats have been working hard at honing our political incompetence ever since Clinton left office.”
It sickens me to watch the Democrats lie down in the middle of the road and let the Rove Machine crush them. Then they stay put and Rove turns around to ride over them again. I’d blame this annoyingly repetitive crushing for their lack of backbone, but the sad truth is that Democratic spinelessness is almost entirely their own doing.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd says it a lot better than I can. In the continuation to this post you’ll find “Delusion and Illusion Worthy of Dickens” and “Looking for a Democratic Tough Guy or Girl.” She hits the Dems right where it hurts: on the truth-bone.
Some excerpts follow. Read them and weep (if you’re a progressive). Then read the entire columns and get angry. At Rove and the neo-cons. And also, at the Democrats who allow the party to flounder along without the guidance of their own Karl Rove.
I can’t believe that there isn’t some ruthless political genius out there who the Dems can hire to be the anti-Rove, a countervailing force with not only equal but superior savvy. Until you find him, Howard Dean, and pay him or her whatever exorbitant salary it takes to get this wunderkind on board, I’ll continue to ignore your frequent email messages asking me to sign an online petition.
Karl Rove kicks ass. He doesn’t circulate petitions. Observe and learn, Democrats. Here’s some of what Dowd has to say in her two columns:
The [Democratic] party simply seems incapable of getting the muscular message and riveting messenger needed to dispel the mud, fog, drizzle and soot emanating from Karl Rove’s rag-and-bone shop on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Dems need to drum up a decent message so they look as if they know what the Dickens they’re doing before the November election. Otherwise, they’ll look like bowed supplicants holding out gruel cups to Karl Rove and pleading, “Please, sir, I want some more.”
To lead, and not just conduct campaigns that parrot the liberal elite’s editorial pages, you have to shape your own identity and political destiny. And ever since the 2000 race, the Democrats have let Republicans caricature them as effeminate. The Democrats have let the G.O.P. give them their shape, and it’s an hourglass.
If the Democrats are like the dithering ”Desperate Housewives,” the Republicans have come across like the counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer on ”24”: fast with a gun, loose with the law, willing to torture in the name of protecting the nation. Except Jack Bauer is competent.
[1/26 update: Courtesy of Liberal Oasis, here’s a good example of Democratic spinelessness–the Alito nomination.]
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