Karl Rove: A Profile in Delusion

Boy, it's hard to read this in the NYT without the old jaw dropping.

I'm not sure what the most amazing part is.

Is it the part where he blames Democrats for the divisive tone that has prevailed during the Bush administration?

Is it the part where he says that his greatest regret during his tenure in Washington was speaking harshly to a friend?

Is it the part where he says that his efforts to eviscerate the Democratic power base are defensible because Democrats, too, would like a durable majority? (Note to Karl: yes, they'd like one, but there are limits to what they'll do to get it. This is one of many very important differences between you and them.)

This guy is delusional. There are close calls in politics, but this one isn't a close call. Rove is a bad guy who has done bad things to the country. He's cut from the same mold as guys like Lee Atwater. Atwater finally recognized and admitted his errors, though it took a brutal struggle with cancer--and impending death--to get him to do so.

Rove doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who will ever see anything like reason. Not only is he completely wrong about almost everything and largely responsible for dividing the country at a time when unity is crucially important, but he projects his own failings onto his political opponents. He not only fails to recognize his own viciously partisan, win-at-all-costs nature, but he attributes that very nature to those who oppose him.

In this piece, we also see Rove employ a mode of defense that others have used to deflect criticism from him. It's the "Aw shucks, I'm no evil genius" ploy. Well, of course he's no genius, though he does seem to have a certain low cunning. And, as we know, most of the evil wrought in politics is not done by those who are straight-forwardly evil, but, rather, by those who just aren't particularly good. Those who are, e.g., willing to let partisanship rule them, who are capable of turning a blind eye to their own intellectual conscience, those who are willing to nip and tuck and massage the facts, those who are willing to systematically paint just slightly distorted portraits of their opponents until they are nothing but evil caricatures. No, Rove is no evil genius. He's just a mean, small man who's cleverer than he is intelligent, and more zealous than he is good. He's the kind of man who's probably done more damage to democracy than any other.

One of the reason I tend to side with the silly Democrats is that guys like Rove are less common on their side of the aisle. Sure, they'll hire mercenaries like Dick Morris sometimes (which makes me sick), but they have fewer wild-eyed, dyed-in-the-wool true believers like Rove. As my friend Peter once put it, the worst the Democrats have is James Carville--and he'd only be about averagely vicious if he were a Republican operative.

So good riddance, Karl...though I'm sure we're not really shed of you just yet.