Free Republic

Republican strategist Karl Rove said Sunday the fact that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama does not have a large lead in the race shows that there are “grave doubts” about the Illinois senator. “With a restive electorate, with an economy that's sort of chugging around, with a war in the background, at the end of eight years of Republican rule in the White House, Obama should be way ahead,” Rove, who engineered President Bush’s two election victories and whose name is synonymous with tough campaigning, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Meantime, Sen. McCain’s (Ariz.) campaign manager Rick Davis stated...

Now that Congress has recessed, and since the conventions aren’t for a couple of weeks, Thursday’s The Situation Room turned back to the "hot" issue of what many liberals are calling on congressional Democrats to do: arrest and lock-up Karl Rove for his failure to testify on the issue of the firing of U.S. attorneys in late 2006. CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, as part of a report on this possible move by the Democrats, conducted a search for the supposed jail inside the U.S. Capitol. He also addressed the little-used power of the legislature to arrest and try government officials...

Notwithstanding the hype about Barack Obama, here is where the presidential race stands: John McCain was within an average of 1.9% of his Democratic opponent in last week's daily Gallup tracking poll. It shouldn't be this close. Sen. Obama should be way ahead. It's not that Sen. McCain has made up a lot of ground. Pollster.com shows that the Republican steadily declined from March through June as the Democratic contest dominated the news. Mr. McCain stabilized in July, and then ticked up slightly. But the most important political fact of July is that Mr. Obama has lost altitude. Gallup now...

The Post-Rove Guru How the Republican Party stopped dreaming about a permanent majority and learned to think like McCain strategist Steve Schmidt. Laurence Lowe, The New Republic Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008 Sergeant Schmidt. The Artillery Shell. The Bullet. Even in the hyper-competitive world of political media strategists--a line of work that tends to reward the studied deployment of affectation and outsized personality--Steve Schmidt, the tough-talking, shaven-headed, 37-year old former high school tight end from North Plainfield, New Jersey, who recently emerged from a scrum among John McCain's inner circle to become the head of day-to-day operations, arrived on the...

Judge says "It's about time," to Rove Arresters The four Iowans arrested last Friday for attempting to make a citizen's arrest of Karl Rove Retired Methodist minister, Chet Guinn, 80, and Des Moines Catholic Workers, Ed Bloomer, 61, Mona Shaw 57, and Kirk Brown, 25, were arrested at a Des Moines country club where Rove was appearing at a Republican Fundraiser. Shaw was the first called before Polk County Fifth Judicial District Associate Judge William Price. After entering her plea, the judge asked Shaw, "Mamn, what were you doing at the Wakonda Country Club?" "I was attempting to make a...

House Panel: Karl Rove Is In Contempt Of Congress Ignores House Judiciary Committee Subpoena WASHINGTON (AP) ― A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress as its Senate counterpart publicly pursued possible punishments for an array of alleged past and present Bush administration misdeeds. Voting along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats. The committee decision is only...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ben Stein says he knows how Sen. John McCain can win in November: Karl Rove. Ben Stein tells CNN's Mark Preston that John McCain is running the "most pathetic campaign" he's ever seen. That's right, that Karl Rove. At a time when McCain is seeking to distance himself from President Bush, Stein argues McCain needs to enlist Bush's chief political guru in order to defeat Sen. Barack Obama. "I don't discount the possibility that some really smart person at the McCain campaign might go over to Karl Rove, and say 'We will offer you all the kingdoms...

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Four peace activists were arrested on Friday as they attempted to make a "citizens arrest" of Karl Rove, who was one of President George W. Bush's top aides before leaving the administration last year. "It should be Karl Rove in that van. War Criminal!"

John McCain and Barack Obama have both changed positions in this campaign. That's OK. Voters understand that politicians can and, sometimes, should change their views. After all, voters do. Witness the wide swings in their answers to opinion polls. But before accepting the changes, voters typically ask themselves three questions: Does the candidate admit he's shifting? What's the new information that altered his thinking? Does the change seem reasonable and not calculating?

Karl Rove may not want to testify under oath before Congress, but he's more than willing to be grilled by another ferocious set: the nation's television reporters. A week after ignoring a congressional subpoena, the former White House aide turned Fox News analyst joined Fox News Executive Vice President John Moody, fellow campaign operative turned political pundit Howard Wolfson and Fox anchorman Chris Wallace before the liberal-skewing press corps at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Los Angeles. ~snip~ "I do talk to people in politics all across the country, some of whom are very active in the...

Former White House strategist Karl Rove may be trying some new political tricks to help fellow Republican Mitt Romney secure the party's vice presidential nomination.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former White House aide Karl Rove denied on Monday that his close ties with Republican politics and John McCain's presidential campaign undermine his credibility as an election analyst for the Fox News Channel. Appearing at a gathering of television critics in Beverly Hills, Rove and network executive John Moody brushed aside suggestions that Rove's continued involvement in the presidential race, informal or not, might pose a conflict in his capacity as a Fox News contributor. Rove, the chief strategist for U.S. President George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 election victories and former deputy chief of staff...

Mitt Romney is best suited to run as John McCain’s vice president in the general election, former presidential strategist Karl Rove said Sunday. “Romney is already vetted by the media, strong executive experience both in business and in government, has an interesting story to tell with saving the U.S. Olympics, and also helps McCain deal with the economy, because he can speak with the economy with a fluency that McCain doesn’t have,” Rove told “Fox News Sunday.” But Rove, a FOX News analyst, added that Romney is not without flaws. “He’s been a little uneven in his performance,” Rove said....

Have any of you seen Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush, on FOX news lately? He is a clever guy, isn't he? Indeed, quite brilliant in my eyes which makes me wonder why his name has such negative connotations, especially in the more liberal newspapers like the NY or LA Times. It seems the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is trying to obtain information from Mr. Rove concerning the firing of several U.S. Attorneys by the President. Now, the way I understand it, the President has the right to fire any U.S. attorney. (This isn't the...

The House Judiciary Committee is not likely to vote on a contempt resolution against Karl Rove until late this month, according to the panel's chairman. Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff and top political advisor to President Bush, refused to appear today before a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee to testify on the "politicization" of the Justice Department under the current administration. Citing a claim of executive privilege by Bush, Rove did not show up for today's hearing despite a committee subpoena. Conyers and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee, rejected...

For a campaign that says it wants to end the politics of the Bush-Cheney years, the Obama for President effort has cribbed an awful lot from the Bush-Cheney playbooks of 2000 and 2004. For starters, Barack Obama's manager admitted to the New York Times that he wanted an "army of persuasion" modeled explicitly on the massive Bush neighbor-to-neighbor "Victory Committee" of '00 and '04. Those efforts deployed millions of volunteers to register, persuade and get-out-the-vote.,,

Rove Gang Moves In McCain Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, was unable to repel a Rovian boarding party with the naming of Steve Schmidt as the new day-to-day manager of the McCain campaign. Davis retains the title but is relegated to “long-term planning.” Schmidt is part of a troika of former Rove aides now in place to revive a campaign that seems to be having trouble defining a message both for McCain and against Barack Obama.

"Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain might not burn up the campaign trail around Western New York this election year, but the University at Buffalo may have scheduled the next best thing. GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards will debate the issues of the presidential campaign Sept. 26 as part of the university’s Distinguished Speakers Series, The Buffalo News has learned. As surrogates for the parties’ standard bearers, the two also could square off more than once at other locations around the nation. “We’re working on something like that for our Distinguished Speakers Series,”...

The John McCain campaign ... installed Steve Schmidt, until now an ultraintense counselor to the campaign, as its operations manager. Mr. Schmidt has a reputation for ruthless efficiency, a take-no-prisoners campaign style and the ability to inspire confidence in subordinates. Karl Rove once dubbed him "The Bullet," a reference to both the shape of his shaved head and his lethal impact when deployed against opponents. Starting with a stint on Capitol Hill as communications director for the House Republican campaign effort, the 37-year-old Mr. Schmidt has had a meteoric rise in politics. He became a counselor to Vice President Dick...

The Terminator's Terminator The John McCain campaign decided it had to do something completely different on Wednesday as it finally reacted to a chorus of complaints that its message was muddled, its public events uneven and its organization lagging. It installed Steve Schmidt, until now an ultraintense counselor to the campaign, as its operations manager. Mr. Schmidt has a reputation for ruthless efficiency, a take-no-prisoners campaign style and ability to inspire confidence in subordinates. Karl Rove once dubbed him "The Bullet," a reference to both the shape of his shaved head and his lethal impact when deployed against opponents. He...

The standoff between the House and the Bush administration over the congressional testimony of top White House aides continued on Thursday when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) threatened to hold Karl Rove in contempt if he follows through on his refusal to respond to a committee subpoena. Conyers and Administrative Law subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) were responding to a July 1 letter they received from Rove’s attorney, Robert D. Luskin, in which Luskin said his client would be unable to appear before Sanchez’s subcommittee. The panel is investigating the politicization within the Justice Department and had...

On the money front, how do Sens. Obama and McCain stack up? No contest, it seems. Since the campaign began, Mr. Obama has raised a staggering $295-plus million, versus Mr. McCain's almost $122 million. But that's misleading. Mr. Obama spent a lot to win the nomination. So how much cash did he and his rival have when the general election effectively began in June? As of May 31, Mr. Obama had $43.1 million on hand while Mr. McCain had $31.6 million – a significant but not overwhelming advantage ...There is also the cash raised by the Republican and Democratic National...

Dear Past Your Eyes, Republicans are placing a big bet on Karl Rove. Freedom's Watch, the secretive Republican attack group zeroing in on Democratic House candidates, has put its expected $200 million war chest in the hands of Karl Rove. They're handing him hundreds of millions of dollars to spend attacking our candidates with this year's biggest "Swift Boat" group. But, you and I can make sure Rove's new gig as the mischief-making maven of the GOP attack group Freedom's Watch is a total bust. Midnight tonight is your last chance to give before the June 30th FEC deadline- the...

Tonight on CNN's Election Center, Joe Klein spewed the following while engaged in a group discussion about a comment made by Karl Rove.......BLITZER: Let's turn to another hot topic right now from the campaign trail today, Karl Rove seriously blasting Barack Obama. We have got some of the smartest people here to talk about that, Joe Klein, Leslie Sanchez, Candy Crowley. Candy, here's the quote from Karl Rove at a breakfast, a Republican breakfast today -- quote -- "Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date holding...

ABC News' Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as "coolly arrogant." "Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said, per Christianne Klein. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

Sen. Obama promised, "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills." Set aside for a minute that Jimmy Carter passed a "windfall profits tax" to devastating effect, putting American oil companies at a competitive disadvantage to foreign competitors, virtually ending domestic energy exploration, and making the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas. Instead ask this: Why should we stop with oil companies? They make about 8.3 cents in gross profit per dollar of sales....

Karl Rove on Hannity and Colmes just asked Why is Al Gore endorsing Obama in Michigan? He's obviously still tone deaf, said Rove. LOL! Gore always bashes the auto industry. He won't get a good reception there.

Politics has become hi-tech with sophisticated databases, the Internet, TV ads, focus groups and polls. But a lanky Sangamon County, Ill., lawyer described the essential task of politics in 1840 in a letter to his Whig campaign committee. Make a list of the voters, he wrote, ascertain for whom they will vote, have undecided voters talked to by someone they hold in confidence, and, on Election Day, get all Whig voters to the polls. Abraham Lincoln was a great president, but he was also a very practical politician. And Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama would be wise to take...

Getting to Know John McCain By KARL ROVE April 30, 2008 It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that...

STAYAWAY CHRISTIANS ALMOST COST ELECTION Many Christians believe that prayer played a major role in sending George W. Bush to the White House, but stayaway believers came close to losing him the election, according to his chief political adviser, Karl Rove. Rove said that one reason the 2000 election was so tight was that as many as 4 million Christian conservatives did not go to the polls, reported "The Chicago Tribune." Although the Bush campaign had expected 19 million evangelical voters to vote for their man, election returns revealed only 15 million turned out to cast ballots. Speaking yesterday at ...

Speaking at the close of the Minnesota Republican Party convention, the former adviser to President Bush painted Democrat Barack Obama as someone 'far out of the mainstream' and he urged the GOP to go after undecided voters. Legendary Republican strategist Karl Rove rallied the party’s troops this afternoon to bring the curtain down on the GOP’s state convention. In a 45-minute speech to convention delegates, he mockingly dismissed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s policy positions and campaign missteps, saying the Illinois senator is someone “far out of the mainstream” who “doesn’t necessarily have the same view of America that you...

This week's minor controversy about Barack Obama's claim that an uncle liberated Auschwitz was quickly put to rest by his campaign. They conceded that it was a great uncle whose unit liberated Buchenwald, 500 miles away. But other, much more troubling, episodes have provided a revealing glimpse into a candidate who instinctively resorts to parsing, evasions and misdirection. The saga over Rev. Jeremiah Wright is Exhibit A. In just 62 days, Americans were treated to eight different explanations. First, on Feb. 25, Mr. Obama downplayed Rev. Wright's divisiveness, saying he was "like an old uncle who sometimes will say things...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said that the House Judiciary Committee would be willing to arrest Karl Rove if the former White House official doesn't testify about his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. Wasserman Schultz, in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday, echoed the demand of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Rove would not be allowed to invoke executive privilege to avoid testifying. Rove could not invoke the privilege since he said he did not have conversations with the president about the attorneys' firing, Wasserman Schultz said. Asked by MSNBC host Dan Abrams...

Washington (AP) Karl Rove says he didn't interfere with the Justice Department's prosecution of a former Alabama governor. President Bush's former chief political adviser told ABC's "This Week" program today that he only learned about the investigation and indictment of Don Siegelman "by reading about it in the newspaper." Siegelman was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for a 2006 bribery conviction. He was released in March thanks to a federal appeals court ruling. He has accused Republican operatives of pushing his prosecution. Rove also told ABC today that it will be up to the courts to decide...

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 25th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Col. Michael Colburn, director "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Panel discussion of 2008 presidential election. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.THIS WEEK (ABC): Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff; David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Sen. Barack Obama.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove, who had been one of President George W. Bush's top aides, was subpoenaed on Thursday to testify before a congressional panel investigating the administration's firing of nine federal prosecutors. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers issued the subpoena after months of failed efforts to get Rove to voluntarily testify under oath. The Judiciary Committee, like its Senate counterpart, has been investigating for more than a year the administration's dismissal of nine of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys in 2006. Despite White House claims to the contrary, critics charge the firings were politically motivated,...

Barack Obama is ambling rather than sprinting across the primary-season finish line. It's not just his failure to connect with blue-collar Democrats. He has added to his problems with ill-informed replies on critical foreign policy questions. On Sunday at a stop in Oregon, Sen. Obama was dismissive of the threats posed by Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Syria. That's the same Iran whose Quds Force is arming and training insurgents and illegal militias in Iraq to kill American soldiers; that is supporting Hezbollah and Hamas in violent attacks on Lebanon and Israel; and that is racing to develop a...

Karl Rove, now a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal, believes the Democratic nomination will go to Sen. Barack Obama, but Rove is amazed that Obama can’t put Hillary Clinton away. “It’s awfully close,” he told the cast of "Fox & Friends" this morning on the Fox News Channel, “and yet, he can’t put it away,” Rove says. “I think what [Obama] saw in Oregon was the rumor that the polls were closing, and that‘s why he spent most of last weekend in Oregon rather than going on the offensive and trying to...

May 20, 2008 | It has now been more than three months since Karl Rove first appeared on television as a Fox News political analyst on Feb 5. In no fewer than 57 appearances, he has increasingly been welcomed into the Fox News fraternity, even joking that the "Hannity & Colmes" show should be renamed the "Colmes & Rove" show. After departing from a Bush administration in political tatters last August, he has reemerged to hold forth at length on the 2008 presidential race. And he may have plenty of seasoned political wisdom to offer Fox's audience. Rove, however, is...

Until very recently Karl Rove was to most Democrats the Great Satan, the political mastermind of two outrageously stunning Republican presidential victories by a Texas goofball governor and, before that, the unfortunate upset ousting of a popular Democratic governor named Ann Richards, as well as the overall rejuvenation of the Lone Star state GOP in statewide offices. ...In recent months one of the worst things Sen. Hillary Clinton could say about her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, was that he was taking moves out of the "Karl Rove playbook." Can you imagine?! "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" she said. Which, if...

Jill Simpson is an unusual woman. A lawyer, she has scratched out an uncertain living in DeKalb County, Alabama. Fellow DeKalb County lawyers describe her as "a very strange person" who "lives in her own world." The daughter of rabid Democrats, she has rarely if ever been known to participate in politics as even a low-level volunteer. Yet today, she is a minor celebrity who is unvaryingly described in the press as a "Republican operative." Those who know her in DeKalb County scoff at the idea that she is a Republican at all. Recently, Simpson's house and law office were...

The Associated Press WASHINGTON | Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday rejected Karl Rove’s latest offer to provide written responses to questions about the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. In a letter to the former White House adviser’s attorney, Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and several other Democrats said Rove’s written responses would not allow for give-and-take questioning. They asked Rove to reconsider his refusal to testify in person and under oath, giving him until May 21 to respond. The committee has threatened to subpoena Rove about allegations that he pushed the Justice Department to...

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.” Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn’t, said Conyers, “We’ll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We’d hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested.” Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among...

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each took a state Tuesday. But the result was a damaging loss for the woman who was once the overwhelming front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Here are some observations on the race: - Mr. Obama is now the prohibitive favorite. Tuesday night, he took at least 94 delegates to Mrs. Clinton's 75 and leads the former First Lady by 176 delegates in the AP tabulation. He has 1,840 of the 2,025 delegates needed to win. Mr. Obama needs only 185 – or 38% – of the 486 outstanding delegates (217 to be elected in...

Corruption trial hears of plot to fire prosecutor By Andrew Stern Reuters CHICAGO A witness at the trial of political fundraiser Antoin Rezko testified on Thursday that then-White House aide Karl Rove was asked to replace the federal prosecutor in Chicago to abort a probe of Illinois corruption. Rove has denied knowledge of any discussion to replace Patrick Fitzgerald, the widely respected U.S. attorney in Chicago, when Rove was one of President George W. Bush's top advisers. Rove, who left the White House last year, could not immediately be reached on Thursday. A spokesman for Fitzgerald, who was appointed in...

The House Judiciary Committee threatened Thursday to subpoena former White House adviser Karl Rove if he does not agree by May 12 to testify about former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman's corruption case. In a letter to Rove's attorney, committee Democrats called it "completely unacceptable" that the Republican political strategist has rejected the panel's request for sworn testimony even as he discusses the matter publicly through the media. "We can see no justification for his refusal to speak on the record to the committee," the letter states. "We urge you and your client to reconsider ... or we will have no...

...As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history. ...Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I...

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run...

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run...

Four months ago, you took the political world by storm in Iowa. The media were agog. They called your words "gorgeous," your victory "a message to the world." You "made history" and Americans could "look at ourselves with pride" in "a moment to marvel." Times change. The six weeks leading into Pennsylvania were difficult. You excelled at raising money and gaining endorsements, but got weaker as big problems emerged. Before you can fix them, you must understand them. In Pennsylvania, you won only 30 percent among Catholics and 29 percent among white working-class voters. Defections like this elect Republicans. Even...