Raising the Levels and Addressing the Concerns
by matt at 6:00 am on June 24th, 2005 in Bush Man Date, PlamegateA quick distinction: The Bush administration makes a lot of mistakes, but they don’t do anything by accident. Karl Rove didn’t say what he said out of panic or worry or even concern for the President’s falling poll numbers. There’s always some crisis around the corner that will have the wayward 9% of drifting Bush voters running back to their protector-in-chief. Rove’s comments were not random; rather they were designed to inflame partisan Democrats into calling for his head.
Within days, the Supreme Court could rule on the Judith Miller / Matthew Cooper appeal. In that event, they would either have to divulge their source in the Valerie Plame leak to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald or be allowed to protect the source’s identity. Fitzgerald is reportedly finished with the rest of his investigation, so a ruling, no matter which way, would bring closure to the case.
If Rove or someone close to him is implicated in Fitzgerald’s report (and it’s not a very big pool of suspects), he’s going to need all the backing he can get from the right. What better way to earn it than throwing them the red meat of a senseless attack on all Democrats? This country isn’t split 50/50 by any accident; they want it like this because even Republicans who don’t support administration policies will side with them against Democrats. The “with us or against us” strategy isn’t just for terrorists, unless you count liberals as terrorists, a viewpoint increasingly popular on the right.
Of course the above is speculation, but certainly well within Rove’s operations manual. Rising above speculation (or more accurately below it) is the email Jason received as part of his continuing inclusion on the RNC mailing list. It’s hard to imagine that it’s subject was mere coincidence after Rove’s comments on Wednesday night:
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman via email to GOP mailing list 6/23/05:
Today’s Democrats are singularly focused on obstruction and over-the-top rhetoric, adding nothing to raise the level of discourse and address the concerns of Americans.
Lest anyone anywhere believe a word that Mehlman excreted…
Raising the Level of Discourse
“Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”
“Fuck yourself”
“On issue after issue [Democrats] stand for nothing except obstruction. Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people.”
“I’ve never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I’ve never met anybody who does. He’s never won anything, as best I can tell.
[…]
“So far, I think he’s probably helped us more than he has them. That’s not the kind of individual you want to have representing your political party.
Republicans “cannot allow ourselves to get pulled into that sniping, that negativity” of the Democrats.
“The audacity of some members to stand up and say ‘How dare you break this rule’ — it’s the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying ‘I’m in Paris, how dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It’s mine.’”
“It’s just inconceivable and truly incorrigible that in the midst of the war, that the Democratic leaders would be conducting guerrilla warfare on American troops.”
Addressing the concerns of Americans
[betting on cockfighting] “is wrong and irresponsible,” [and would like to see it be a] “federal crime.”
“Ask the men and women who stood on top of the World Trade Center. Ask them and they will tell you - pass this amendment.”
“This act of barbarism can be, and must be, prevented. The Senate has before it the Protection of Incapacitated Persons Act of 2005. This bill is the right thing to do.”
“Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom.”
“I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome. It’s a significant question that during this entire ordeal was never brought up.”
“Texans have made a decision about marriage and if there is some other state that has a more lenient view than Texas then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”