The Sheehan Spectacle reveals the utter incompetence of Karl Rove.

[BurtWorm]

Karl Rove is a master of the political image? Really? Then why didn't he figure out how to get Bush through his summer vacation without losing the PR battle thrust upon him by Cindy Sheehan and the gold star moms? Did he really think the media were going to see *Bush* as the put-upon underdog in this? Is that why he's had Bush do nothing but make clear he doesn't give a shit? Brilliant strategy: Highlight your boy's least endearing "character" (so to speak) trait!

(Or is he too preoccupied with the Plame probe to stay on his game? That's a real possibility, I'll admit. But can't Rove multitask, as actual political genius Bill Clinton can?)

An actual genius would have arranged a meeting between Bush and Sheehan *immediately,* stealing all of her thunder and snuffing the threatening spectacle before it could do any damage. But Rove is not a genius, after all. He's the same dumb bully he's always been. His response to every perceived threat is to do violence to it--to do violence to the bearer of it, actually, to try to injure the people who become Bush's enemies. It's what they did to Ann Richards, to John McCain, to Al Gore, to Joe and Valerie Wilson, to Richard Clarke, to John Kerry.

It's what they've tried to do with Cindy Sheehan, but this time--Rove, you stupid ass--it's not working.

[whistle]

1. KKKarl Rove is really a lame duck at this point is he not?

[jsamuel]

2. Rove is only a political genius when compared to the people runing the Dem

side of that war...

Well, we are taking over and kicking his ASS!

[KansDem]

3. Karl Rove was never the "genius" some made him out to be...

Oh, he was adept at what he did, but he had one thing going for him: the Corporate Media. It was they who whored for him 24/7. It was they who took his "talking points" and turned them into "news." It was they who sent stenographers disguised as "reporters" to the White House press conferences. It was they who became Bush cheerleaders at his request.

Oh, I made a mistake. He had two things going for him: 1) the Corporate Media and, 2) a complete lack of conscience, morals, and ethics.

[Gabi Hayes]

12. thank you for saying the magic words: corporate media

they, more than ANY other single factor, are responsible for the havoc being wreaked on the entire planet

they made their choice...the pugs do what they do, like sharks; they really can't help it. it's a genetic dysfunction, like any other organic disease....they're PROGRAMMED to be the way they are. that's why so very few ever see the light

the media, however, CHOOSE to feather their comfy nests in Great Falls, Upper West Side, Potomac, etc., because they know that if they report what's really going on, they'll end up like Robert Parry, Jason Leopold, Ray Bonner....or Danny Casolaro, or Steve Kangas.

[judy]

4. It can't work.

Rove is a genius at using lies to manipulate public opinion...
Cindy is using simple truths, with a small t.
What she is using is much more powerful than any lie, and any attempt at manipulation or smear. Karl is kinda stuck, lame duck or not.

Someone on this board compared Cindy to Gandhi, and I think what the common link is, is the use of a simple truth as a "weapon" against any kind of oppression and the false views that are used to justify it.

The simple truth is: The pResident said Casey Sheehan died for a noble cause. I'm afraid Casey died for nothing, or even worse, for an illusion that will benefit very few people and hurt very many. Can the pResident face me and tell me honestly, face to face, what the noble cause is?

The answer is obvious, and nothing Uncle Karl can do will change this: the answer is no, he can't.

[Richard Steele]

5. I've said this before: Rove is no genius.

He's simply willing to use DIRTIER tricks
than those of us who have an ounce of soul left.

None of his tricks are especially clever;
and none of them are particularly original.
All of his "tricks" are old tricks, used by many dictators and despots before Rove.

They simply work because DECENT people can't really imagine that
a human being would "do something like that".

But Cindy shows us that when his old, tired tricks don't work...
he's got NOTHING.
No idea what to do, not a single ORIGINAL thought comes to him.

He's no genius.

[BurtWorm]

7. No blossoms sprouting from this turd.

[Richard Steele]

8. Nice one! "All Turd, No Blossom"

[quiet.american]

6. Or it could be Shrub's pathology is just too strong in this case.

"Bush's Brain" may actually be up to his usual scumbag sleaze, but Bush's pathological inability to deal with reality, his pathological inability to feel genuine emotion, his pathological inability to admit to mistakes, and his borderline Tourrette's Syndrome tendencies may be winning out over anything he's being "advised" to do.

[BurtWorm]

10. It does seem that the right's lapdogs are yapping anti-Cindy propaganda

on cue. But that's genius? It's the same old shit they always pull!

As someone above said, these lame lies don't have much candle-power against the truth.

[Skarbrowe]

9. Hmm, if the media is focusing on Cindy, they're off Rove.

But, right now, that's a trade off I would take. Cindy is bringing so much attention to something that was being totally ignored. We can always get back to Rove indictments (hopefully) later in the fall.

[BurtWorm]

11. Rove isn't going anywhere.

It's probably premature to write them off, but they definitely seem to be more at the mercy of events than in command of them.

(Of course, as some clear-eyed lefty cynic (can't remember who) pointed out recently, they're running away with the legislative agenda and they're about to add a winger for a moderate on the bench, so who cares how well loved they are.)

[McCamy Taylor]

13. They are probably planning to blow up something in September.

Both Rove and Cheney prefer tried and tested to innovation.

[OneGrassRoot]

16. Fitzgerald?

Is anyone feeling hope that Fitzgerald and/or the grand jury may come forward with indictments sooner than October to avoid ANOTHER insane last-ditch effort on the administrations' part to instill fear and thus control?

Surely, surely, surely they've put all the pieces of the puzzle together and see their psycho gameplan and will want to shut them down as soon as possible.....surely.....:spank:

[stevietheman]

14. This became the exception to Rove's usually successful strategies...

Basically, a policy that worked when applied to anybody else, is backfiring when applied to America's Mom.

Maybe Rove is a genius... kind of like a scientist with a great theory, but is finally broken by an additional fact that breaks the back of the theory.

In other words, Cindy Sheehan has discovered the Achilles Heel of this regime.

[KoKo]

15. I've always said they are "One Trick Pony's." All they know to do is

character defamation, dirty tricks and impeach the oppostion. It's the same performance over and over and over.

What's depressing is that the Democrats didn't catch on when they started this early in Clinton's Administration. Even when Hillary said "it's a vast Right Wing Conspiracy," our Dems didn't defend the statement. They knew and they allowed it...all the while taking Tom Daschle's famous "hand wringing" postion that maybe "giving them enough rope they would hang themselves." Daschle now works on K-Street in DC and is "under the radar." And where the hell are we?

In the meantime American citizens have been put through the wringer. Our hero's have been subjugated to the most vile, viscious attacks for such a prolonged period that one wonders if we will ever recover from it. We Democrats have been sent out to the woodshed where we happily took our lickings, came out and said "we will do better," and it started all over again with the Bullies of the RW aided by the whole Repug Party went on with the "game."

It's throroughly disgusting. And, even now the Repugs, instead of looking in the mirror at what they've done, they reflect back their tactics, games and scurrilous defamation on US.

Rove's been so successful at what he does, why should he quit now?