“A casual relationship with reality”
Categories: Political
Oh yeah, that's some huge change going on over at the White House (rolls eyes). Flop-sweating White House spokesman Scott McClellan has been getting the beat down from the press for a while now, it's no surprise he got his walking papers.
Oh, and Karl Rove no longer in charge of "Policy Development"? Please! Was he ever really in charge of policy? Of course not! That would first require the Bush administration to actually have something approaching public policy and they don't. All they have is politics and that's because Rove has been running the show since Bush was Governor of Texas. What passes for policy at the White House is just a bunch of favor-trading and flip-flopping on any vaguely defined plan that fits their political agenda. Policy involves things like experts and studies and facts and some coherent philosophy of government's role in our society and the world at large. When you craft bills and plans using language taken directly from lobbyist propaganda that helps major campaign donors evade things like responsibility and accountability, you really can't seriously claim to actually have "Policy" in any traditional governing sense.
But for some reason, Rove has said time and time again that he's not all about the politics, he's really a policy guy at heart. Bullshit! This guy plays politics like Louis Armstrong played trumpet. If he genuinely believes he's some sort of true policy wonk, then that belief comes from either gross overestimation of the breadth of his talents or a fundamental misunderstanding of the term. The man uses White House policy as a bludgeon for political gain, not the other way around.
So he's still Deputy Chief of Staff just theoretically without involvement in policy so he can focus on the midterm elections where current polling sugggests the GOP is likely to get their asses handed to them. The press has somehow managed to swallow the theory that this represents a demotion of some sort, some sort of heavy-handed reigning in by the new Chief of Staff, Michael Bolton, the pop singer of questionable talent.
Oh, actually it's Josh Bolten. Josh Bolten, apparently, is actually a friend of Rove's and apparently Andy Card, the previous Chief of Staff who resigned a month ago, was not. So, this big demotion really means more power for Rove, not less. And why not? With Rove at the helm, the country twice (well, once) elected an inexperienced and not particularly well-educated former Professional Loser who can barely talk and believes that there is such a thing as "the internets" but not such a thing as "evolution" or "global warming" to the Presidency of the United States.
Before you start admiring Rove's chutzpah, remember he won those elections by smearing decorated Vietnam veterans. And if that's not enough, he won an Alabama judicial election by spreading rumors that the incumbent was a pedophile.
Oh then there's that whole blowing-the-cover-of-a-covert-CIA-operative thing, which is usually considered treason, but in W's White House, treason is graded on a curve.
Like pretty much anything done in this administration, especially where Rove is concerned, this move is purely for show. You don't demote the Sith Lord of politics.
posted by Mark Kawakami at April 20, 2006, 09:04 PM // permalink // (53) Comments