When I was a kid, I remember watching a B-movie on TV called,
They Saved Hitler’s Brain. The plot was an
incomprehensible mish-mash, but the main idea was that Nazi
officials smuggled the gray matter out of Germany at the end of
World War II in order that it could someday be grafted onto a body,
thus continuing the evil dictator’s ambition of global
domination.
The resignation of political guru Karl Rove from the Bush
Administration has naturally produced a similar mish-mash regarding
the separation of the White House Fuehrer from his longtime brain.
In some ways the reactions have been predictable. Over on the
left-wing
websites, there was tempered joy, but conspiracy theories still
reign: “What dank cavern of iniquity will he infest next?”
King Karl is the man that liberals love to hate; a lot. Just
last week, an inane video featuring yet another failed Seinfelder, Jason
Alexander, was released. This dreary effort—featuring Alexander as
“Rovemort” and spoofing, among other things, Rush Limbaugh’s
hearing loss—epitomizes the reason why liberals, in addition to
their depressing and soul-stealing agenda, are just not funny.
Meantime, the liberal press is in a tizzy .While paying
lip-service to his legacy of numerous electoral victories, they of
course have zeroed in on the 2006 power shift, placing blame for
the GOP losses squarely on his back. They gleefully cite Bush’s
Rovian stubbornness on Iraq as the determining factor in that
contest; though were that so, neither pro-war Chris Shays nor Joe
Lieberman would have been re-elected in my ultra-blue state of
Connecticut.
If Rove bears any culpability for ‘06, it would be that neither
he nor RNC chairman Ken Mehlman effectively countered the
opposition’s expert exploitation of the various scandals that
afflicted GOP ranks. But that one loss, though painful, shouldn’t
dim the historic gains made in 2002 and especially in 2004 when
Republicans gained four Senate seats, including that of Minority
Leader Tom Daschle.
Rove’s genius was in the way he revolutionized the campaigning
process, utilizing Get Out the Vote and direct mail strategies, and
proving that a presidential election could be won without New York
or California. Most of the current GOP presidential candidates have
one or more of his acolytes on board and even the Clinton campaign
is said to be imitating the Rove/Bush model.
There’s been much criticism of Rove on the right for what is
perceived as the President’s “unconservative” initiatives like his
amnesty for illegal aliens and the whole “compassionate
conservative” thing, and this is a fair knock. But one hopes that
they might remember that Rove’s major talent was winning elections,
and without him, Justices Alito and Roberts would not grace the
halls of the Supreme Court, nor would we be taking the fight to our
bloodthirsty enemies overseas.
But maybe he does need a rest after all. Frankly, his hideously
embarrassing rap-dance at the White House correspondents’ dinner
had me worried. And just maybe he really does want to spend time
with his family. In case anyone has forgotten, wives are often
considered a part of one’s family, especially those facing the
chasm that is the proverbial empty nest. And unlike certain past
administrations, whose members left the White House considerably
more well endowed than when they entered, most of the Bushies took
a huge pay cut to serve the nation.
It is my hope that he stays close to home and makes a bundle on
a book he’s said to be working on; one that may end with his vision
for total victory in Iraq vindicated. Support for the surge is on
the rise. For whatever reason, the New York Times has been
making noises about the folly of a major troop
reduction and even the UN Security Council has voted to expand its
presence in there.
In resigning at this time, Rove has plucked one of the
Democrats’ favorite arrows out of their quiver. Endless hearings
and investigations were a promise they made when they regained
power, and it’s one of the few they’ve kept, ad nauseam. Still,
even though liberals have vowed to pursue Rove to the darkest regions of
Texas, his lack of proximity to Bush will have let a lot of air out
of that balloon.
Of course, their thirst for revenge will not be slaked by his
departure. Liberals have always needed a shadowy, Machiavellian
figure like Rove to assure themselves that a moronic frat-boy like
Bush could not have actually beaten them twice.
But keep in mind, should the fantasists on the far left ever see
their real wish come true and impeach George W. Bush, they would
then have to contend with his “other” brain, Richard B. Cheney. And
that would be a movie I’d pay to see.
