For Bush & Rove Everything is About Right-Wing Republicanism

Although he campaigned as a "compassionate conservative" in order to get power, Bubble-Boy Bush and his "brain", King Karl Rove, are right wing zealots. This is shown by their desire to do away with Social Security, by their response to Hurricane Katrina, by their willingness to use unilateral military force in Iraq, and by the current scandal with the fired U.S. Attorneys.

This is also shown by this article in the New York times about King Karl's influence in picking U.S. District Attorneys. Now, let's be clear about something: all presidents are influenced by politics when making selections for U.S. District Attorneys. Those positions are patronage positions and are political plums that presidents get to hand out.

What makes Rove's involvement in this process somewhat different is that he was interested in advancing a particular philosophy in making these political appointments. That philosophy is dedicated to reducing the role of government in people's lives, to increasing the prerogatives of corporations in our society, and to increasing the power and influence of the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. Anyone who gets in the way of their agenda, even other Republicans, gets cut down without mercy.

What is also obvious about Rove and Bush is that all ethical & moral considerations are subordinate to their desire to have a right-wing government. If they have to trash someone's reputation to get and maintain power, lie about their opponents, mislead the Congress, lie to the American people, to name just a few of the things they have done in their political careers, so be it.

Rove Wants a Partisan Justice Department

McClatchy News ran a story that pointed out that the replacement attorneys for the fired U.S. Attorneys have partisan records and were part of a Karl Rove plan to politicize the Justice Department. His plan was to use so-called "voter fraud" cases to intimidate groups that were registering poor people and minorities as voters. The following is a quote from the story that you can read by clicking on the link in this entry's title:

Last April, while the Justice Department and the White House were planning the firings, Rove gave a speech in Washington to the Republican National Lawyers Association. He ticked off 11 states that he said could be pivotal in 2008. Bush has appointed new U.S. attorneys in nine of them since 2005: Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico. U.S. attorneys in the latter four were among those fired.

Since the black-robed coup of 2000 the Bush Justice Department, (and isn't that an oxymoron), has pushed such things as voter identification laws, redistricting, and has worked to push out experienced civil rights attorneys and replaced them with conservative ideologues. Our suspicion is that Rove was scared by the closeness of the vote in Florida, realized that his candidate didn't win that election honestly, and wanted to make sure it never happened again. His tool was going to be the U.S. Justice Department. His aim was to make sure that a Republican president was elected in 2008.

Right now, Karl Rove needs a Republican victory in 2008 or else he is going to be remembered as the man who lost the Congress and the Presidency for the GOP. This is not how he wants to be remembered when he leaves politics. Of course, like with everything else this gang touches, the plan to replace the U.S. Attorneys failed because of incompetence.

Surprise, Surprise, Rove Involved in Firing of New Mexico U.S. Attorney

In the article linked to in this entry's title by the McClatchy Washington Bureau, the New Mexico Republican chairman admits to asking Rove to help get rid of the U.S. Attorney, David Iglesias. Rove was the person who told the Republican Chairman that Iglesias was going to be replaced. You just knew that somewhere, somehow, Rove's fingerprints would be on this mess.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times asked in a column this weekend about those U.S. Attorneys who weren't fired. Since we know that Gonzales and his puppets at the Department of Justice weren't above using the DOJ for political purposes, and since we know that most of them weren't fired, what was going on with the ones that weren't. How many politically inspired investigations did they start at the request of the Bushies? That is the question that Democratic Representatives and Senators should be asking next week when Congress reconvenes after the weekend.

Karl Rove: "I don't want my 17 year old son picking tomatoes."

Karl Rove allegedly said that at a meeting of GOP House members when asked to explain Bubble-Boy's immigration policy. The meaning is pretty clear: "my son is better than that, and therefore that kind of work should be done by immigrants." That is how the conservative National Review took his comments when one of their staffers blasted Rove for making such an elitist statement. Here's a news flash for King Karl: When the National Review, a magazine started by William Buckley, is attacking you for your stupid statements, you are in big trouble. (Click on the link in this entry's title to read more)