Mass E Mail from John Lapp of the DCCC

[Coastie for Truth]

I got this fund raising appeal e-mail from the DCC today.

It was hard to be surprised when I read this in Reuters about the Supreme Court nomination...

"Sources said the timing of an announcement had been moved up in part to deflect attention away from a CIA leak controversy that has engulfed Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove...'It helps take Rove off the front pages for a week,' one Republican strategist said."
When Democrats demanded that Rove be fired, it was about more than justice for dirty deeds done. It was about the fact that he was continuing as President Bush's top advisor on matters of supreme importance to all Americans -- literally.

We learned this week that Karl Rove was so adamant about smearing CIA agent Valerie Plame's husband that even White House aides were taken aback. When one asked him why, Rove replied simply: "He's a Democrat."

And yet President Bush allowed him to continue on in his job, despite his original pledge to fire any leakers, and Tuesday night presented a nominee for the highest court in the land chosen under the guidance of a man whose defining characteristic is dirty, scorched-earth partisanship at any cost.

We will not let Rove off the hook.

It is bad enough that the House is dominated by Rove's kindred spirit, Tom DeLay. Both of these men value power above all. They are the two most influential men in Republican strategy and policy, the men who tell the rest of the Republicans how to speak, think, and vote.

Their ethical blindness casts a shadow of dishonor across the entire Republican Party, who with precious few exceptions cannot bring themselves to utter the slightest word against the two.

Let us be clear here about who has been proven to be "in the loop" on the smearing of CIA agent Valerie Plame's husband:

*Karl Rove: President Bush's Right-Hand Man
*Scooter Libby: Vice President Cheney's Right-Hand Man
*Stephen Hadley: Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's Right-Hand Man

Not only have they kept their jobs; not a single negative word has been said about any of them by the White House. In fact, let's be clear again:

There has been no indication whatsoever from the White House that what was done was wrong, and no indication whatsoever that they will not do it again.

To understand how profound this abuse of power is, consider that we are currently in a War on Terror, and that our country is desperate to recruit more qualified intelligence operatives. And yet the message from the White House is that, so long as the leaker is not convicted (apparently indictment is acceptable), they reserve the right to "out" with impunity any covert agent whose family member happens to rub the White House the wrong way.

Karl Rove hopes to slip away into the shadows, but we will keep churning the truth out for all Americans to see.

President Bush won't hold Karl Rove accountable. But we will.

[JDPriestly]

1. Omitted names

George W. Bush has not held Rove accountable because, if the truth were known, George W. Bush was quite aware of, authorized, approved, laughed about, in short, was an accomplice and cheerleader to the Plame outing. Same for Richard Cheney, although Cheney was quieter and sneakier about it. They were all in this together. Don't you think that Rove snickered about this in the hallways and recesses of the White House as well as in the oval office. He was probably really proud of this smear.

Why do you think Rove does what he does for his living? He takes sadistic pleasure in sticking his political propaganda knife in other peoples' backs and in wielding all that power he so artfully amassed. Rove wouldn't miss a chance to flaunt his latest dirty trick in front of the president who loves and keeps Rove close precisely because Rove feeds Bush's sadistic needs with tales of how Rove beat Bush's opponents to political pulp through dirty tricks. Bush wouldn't get the same pleasure if he won fair and square. It's the dirty tricks that he loves, and Rove is the master of that. It's the general wisdom that Rove is the puppeteer here, but actually, Bush keeps Rove dangling. Rove needs Bush's approval, so Rove keeps thinking up wilder and wilder dirty tricks to earn it. It's a symbiotic relationship in fact.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. And the sheeple are too dumb to see it--

Nixon's Southern Strategy and the Rove-Atwater-Gingrich-Bush strategy described in What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank -- and all of the wedge issues.

The GOP needs wedge issues because they can't win on unifying issues.