Nation-Building >> Rove is for Dean, and the DLC is against him, OK? | return to front page

When you have the DLC and Rove saying the same thing, all kinds of red things start popping up in places. A top-of-the-pile rule is that when your opponent is going down what you know is a dead-end road, the last thing you do is show up to say so. You just let it be. Karl Rove is a professional liar. If you take anything he does at face value, you are being taken. As such, the press and Democratic establishment are regularly taken for rides into the long night by Rove:

As a dozen (actually three dozen) people marched toward Dana Place wearing Dean for President T-shirts and carrying Dean for America signs, Rove told a companion, "Heh, heh, heh. Yeah, that's the one we want, How come no one is cheering for Dean? Come on, everybody! Go, Howard Dean!"

What Rove fears is anything that upsets the current makeup of the electorate.

For the past decade, the American electorate has been 30 percent conservative, 20 percent liberal, and 50 percent moderate...

If the Democrats actually turnout their base to vote, that equation shifts to equal number of partisan voters. No one besides Dean, in the current field of Democrats, has the look of being able to energize the base to do this. Yet without it, as NDOL points out, Democrats have a slim chance at winning. If they can acheive that parity, then the Democrats have good odds in their favor in reaching the moderate voters:

The Bush years have created a long list of unfinished business -- restoring an ethic of responsibility in Washington and in corporate America, asking more Americans to serve, rewarding work instead of wealth and privilege.

The way for Democrats to recapture the high ground and the White House is not to spend big, but to be genuinely bold. We need a president who, unlike Bush, won't give away money the country doesn't have. We need a president who doesn't think a new tone in Washington means putting his party's special interests first. Most of all, we need a president who won't just tell his friends what they want to hear, but will ask more of Americans and give them the chance to do better.

I read that and see Howard “Social justice can’t occur without a balanced budget” Dean.

If you can believe that Karl Rove sees the netroots and grassroots activism that's happening in the Democratic Party for Howard Dean, and fathom him in thinking it's a great thing for Bush, he's fooled you again. What Rove is really doing is giving the DLC candidates and the media some fodder to try and take down Dean with, because Rove knows Dean is the strongest Democrat in the field-- which is why he's saying the exact opposite.