[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally and Daily Kos]

yeah, there are some pretty dangerous characters running around these days – frist, delay, cheney, dobson, perkins, santorum, cornyn, bolton, to name a few – but none of them scares me quite like karl rove… given the obvious critical juncture we seem to be at in this country with dobson attempting to take over the senate and the courts now that he’s already occupied the executive branch, it would be well to remember the “invisible hand” that’s keeping all the pieces in play…

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rove is a double-whammy guy, a pathological genius, and he’s been honing his take-no-prisoners, chop-the-bodies-into -little-pieces and shave-the-ground-with-a-razor- so-there’s-nothing-left brand of political “success” since his high-school debate team days in the late 60’s… he’s one mean son-of-a-bitch and his genius is being able to put the pieces together and keep them together… there’d be plenty of shit coming down WITHOUT rove, to be sure, but WITH him, the r’s are like a juggernaut, flattening everything in their path…

i’ve beaten this same drum over and over and i will continue to do so because that’s how serious a threat i believe rove to be… let’s turn to some sources, including rove himself… (all bold and italics are mine…)

   Karl Rove, a solitary citizen, unelected, now has the kind of power in government and politics never before granted to a private citizen.

the above quote comes from the book, “bush’s brain,” authored by james moore and wayne slater in 2003… they’re highly credible journalists who have made a study of rove over many years and their portrait is grim but very enlightening… quite frankly, the book should be required reading for every citizen of voting age in this country… the authors, without making direct accusation (the book takes great pains to focus on facts rather than speculation and diatribe), make a fairly convincing case that rove’s strategy during bush’s first term was to cynically use saddam hussein and the war on iraq as a very opportune distraction from the worsening economy, corporate corruption (bound to rub off on the r’s), and the fact that the “war on terror” was not going well… even today with the widespread belief that the american people were lied to about the reasons for going to war in iraq, the real motives behind iraq are rarely explored… the authors quote jason stanford, a national democratic consultant…

   “They picked a war they could win. […] We can’t invade al Qaeda. We can’t occupy it. We can’t even find it. Okay. Fine. But we do know where Baghdad is. We’ve got a map. We can find it on a map. And they’ve got oil and an evil guy. So let’s go there. They never stop and say that. But they know it’s what they are doing. It has to be the most evil political calculation in American history.”

that’s the word… “evil…” i believe rove is evil… i believe there is nothing he wouldn’t do or say to advance the agenda of the far-right wing of the republican party but, even more than that, to win… when the man can utter incredible things like the following, we all need to be afraid, very afraid…

   Rove was talking to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him. I paid it no mind and reviewed a jotted list of questions I hoped to ask. But after a moment, it was like ignoring a tornado flinging parked cars. “We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!” As a reporter, you get around–curse words, anger, passionate intensity are not notable events–but the ferocity, the bellicosity, the violent imputations were, well, shocking. This went on without a break for a minute or two. Then the aide slipped out looking a bit ashen, and Rove, his face ruddy from the exertions of the past few moments, looked at me and smiled a gentle, Clarence-the-Angel smile. “Come on in.” And I did. And we had the most amiable chat for a half hour.

that may well qualify as one of the most pathological accounts i have ever read… well, ok, this one from sidney blumenthal is right up there too… blumenthal was describing bush and rove at the inaugural of the clinton library in arkansas last november…

   Offstage, beforehand, Rove and Bush had had their library tours. According to two eyewitnesses, Rove had shown keen interest in everything he saw, and asked questions, including about costs, obviously thinking about a future George W Bush library and legacy. “You’re not such a scary guy,” joked his guide. “Yes, I am,” Rove replied. Walking away, he muttered deliberately and loudly: “I change constitutions, I put churches in schools …” Thus he identified himself as more than the ruthless campaign tactician; he was also the invisible hand of power, pervasive and expansive, designing to alter the fundamental American compact.

once your eyes are really wide open to this guy, you can see the effects of that “invisible hand” everywhere… he’s really very, very good at hiding it and, no matter how much some particular piece of skulduggery looks like rove’s work, there’s only the thinnest suspicion of a shimmer of a ghost of a thread to concretely tie back to him… but he’s there… he’s always there… quoting from moore and slater once again…

  He always puts a layer of operatives between himself and the actual implementation of any plan of attack. All of the investigative roads can be expected to lead back to Rove, but, if past practice is any indication, they will wash out from a deluge of deception before they get to their destination. The shock is not that [an attack] has occurred. What proves astounding is its blatant obviousness, the calculated meanness, its execution with the cool precision of a business plan.

  “The problem with Karl is that his enemies list never ends,” said a Republican friend and staunch Bush ally. “Once you’re on it, it does not end.”

  The president’s future is controlled by a reliable and facile mind. Karl Rove will always be the man with the plan.

  Karl Rove will not go away.
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