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• Sunday, October 5, 2008 03:59 AM

  Roving oneself

  Karl Rove did something that many other political operatives don't do, and it's really an element of why he's a unique figure in American political life: He understands that while other people look for the weakness in an opponent and exploit that, Rove has long looked at the strength of an opponent. In the case of Ann Richards running for governor, it was that she was tolerant and appealed to many constituents, so you attack her as an advocate for the homosexuals' agenda. In the case of John McCain, it was that he was a POW in Vietnam, and so you raise questions about his service in Vietnam

  Wayne Slater

  McCain may be the only candidate who has Roved himself. A year or two ago McCain's perceived strengths were:

  • straight-talk - he told the truth, he was honest and honorable

  • Bipartisanship - he was willing to work with Democrats and was decent in his approach to them

  • Maverick - he bucked the extremists in his own party, criticized the wingnuts and the Fallwell-fundies

  What McCain has done in this campaign is take every strength that he was perceived as having (falsely I would add), dropped them in the toilet and pulled the handle so many times it all but broke off. By lying about Obama's record and being called on it by almost every national media outlet INCLUDING FOX! he destroyed his reputation for straight talk, and by making some of those lies stunningly sleazy, such as the "comprehensive-sex-education for kindergarden" stunt he left is honor totally muddied -- to the extent that Obama and Biden look good by just defending it now. He (and Palin) have turned bipartisanship into a joke by consistently using the word in a sentence that goes on to launch a scurrilous attack on Obama, Biden and the Democratic Party. And finally by selecting Palin, not only did he pick someone who seems to get caught lying constantly, and someone whose political nastiness makes claims to bipartisanship look ludicrous, he also selected a far right wing wingnut fundamentalist, thereby wrecking is maverick reputation. No more does McCain rebel against the crazies in his own party, now he is fully in bed with them.

  It is curious because 6-12 months ago the despondent Republican leadership had concluded that they had to run McCain, that he was the only senior Republican with the stature to run for President, few skeletons in his closet, and a reputation (wrongly earned) as a moderate out-of-step with the wing-nuttery of the Republicans. Le plus ça change, le plu c'est la meme chose (I put that in just to piss off the Republican trolls), McCain has morphed in public perception into the nasty Republican he always was in reality, and he represents just what the Republicans have stood for over the last 28 years.

  And by the way, the Republican situation is not helped by the legion of really unpleasant supporters they seem able to rally hear and there (just as some (very vocal) Hillary supporters did her campaign more harm than good.) It is pretty obvious I travel a lot, and look at elections in a lot of countries. Many commentators said post 1997 that the biggest problem the British Conservatives had (until recently the Republican's soul mates) was their perception as, and even nick-name of, "The Nasty Party." The Tories by 1997 and right until perhaps a year ago was a party that people would avoid admitting membership of, it was like announcing you were a wife-beater to say you were a Conservative.

  The Republicans are rapidly reaching the point of being considered the "Nasty Party." I used to meet senior Republicans in the late 80s and early 90s and at that time most in Congress and the unelected leadership seemed to be thoughtful and decent people (if wrong.) But starting with Gingrich the party seemed to attract increasingly nasty and shallow members. I still remember with shock meeting a right wing republican in a Washington club, wearing a bush length leather mini-skirt with her date (she looked like a hooker); she turned out to be an ambitious staffer for Spence Abraham. Increasingly drunk she started a diatribe to a senior unelected (but powerful) Republican (while trying to impress him!)about immigration and the problem of miscegination between American whites and Asian immigrants - she did not know his wife was Chinese and that he was an immigration lawyer; Spence Abraham fired Ann Coulter less than two weeks later. The few nice young-Republicans I know are, well, pre-naturally dim.

  This is a huge problem for the Republicans, Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and now Palin and McCain (and their sponsored online trolls) are firmly establishing the Republicans as pariahs, loathed for their nastiness, their hypocrisy and their unreason. The Republicans are not like, they are seen as ranting, lying blowhards. Palin's speech yesterday made that theme worse, McCains Roving of himself worse, the whole Republican situation worse.

  And by the way, I am surprised to say this, but read Francis Fukuyama's The Fall of America Inc. in today's Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/162401

  —MacK.. Read MacK..'s other letters
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