Day: August 13, 2007

Rove/Bush Timeline, THE Math, and Fond Memories

Trish

The Chicago Tribune put together this handy timeline of the golden years of Karl Rove with the Bushes.

Rover two weeks before the 2006 midterms: “I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.”
  • 1973 — Rove became chairman of the College Republicans. During his time in Washington, D.C., he became a special assistant to Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush and met George W. Bush.
  • 1977 — Worked for a political action committee dedicated to making the elder Bush president in 1980.
  • 1978 — Advised younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign.
  • 1980 — Assisted George H.W. Bush’s unsuccessful presidential campaign.
  • 1994 — Adviser for George W. Bush’s successful Texas gubernatorial campaign.
  • 1998 — Adviser for Gov. Bush’s successful re-election campaign.
  • 2000 — Chief strategist for Bush’s presidential campaign.
  • 2004 — Chief strategist for re-election campaign.
  • 2005 — Currently assistant to the president, deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

Individual dates are missing here, such as the dates Rove called Judy Miller with bogus Iraq weapons of mass destruction intelligence, and when he called Bob Novak, Tim Russert, and whoever else with Valerie Plame’s identity, as well as the date he dissed Sheryl Crow over global warming. My favorite is the date Bush got snitty about Turd Blossom after the disastrous 2006 midterm elections.

“I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was,” said Bush.

Good times.

But Bush couldn’t be blamed for being pissed at Rover, whose inability to tell which way the wind was blowing led directly to the “good thumpin'” Bush had to take.

Two weeks before the election, Rove showed the world how he reacts when someone disagrees with his interpretation of the facts, and why he is so detested by nice people everywhere. His interview with the polite Robert Seigel on NPR, when it was really looking good for the Democrats, said it all.

SIEGEL: We are in the home stretch though and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about…

ROVE: Not that you would exhibit a bias, you just making a comment.

SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

ROVE: No, you are not. I’m looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.

SIEGEL: I don’t want to have you to call races…

ROVE: I’m looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don’t know if we’re entitled to a different math but your…

ROVE: I said THE math.

What an asswipe.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The Bible nowhere prohibits war. In the Old Testament we find war and even conquest positively commanded, and although war was raging in the world at the time of Christ and His Apostles, still they said not a word of its unlawfulness and immorality.

— Henry Wager Halleck (1815-1872), American Union general, Civil War

Megachurch Preacher Who Canceled Gay Vet’s Funeral Is In-Law of Top Evangelist Joel Osteen

Jon Ponder


Many evangelicals consider Pastor Joel Osteen to be a modern-day Billy Graham. Like Graham, Osteen is incredibly popular. He heads the Lakewood Church, the world’s largest megachurch, and is the author of the bestselling power-of-positive-thinking-esque “Your Best Life Now” book series. And like Graham, Osteen tends to focus on positive messages rather than on GOP ideology disguised as theology — particularly the hatred and fear of gay people — that has become an endemic trait of today’s Christian church.

Last week, however, Osteen’s brother-in-law and rival, Rev. Gary Simons, who is head of his own megachurch, the High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, made national news when he abruptly canceled the funeral of a Gulf War veteran after he discovered that the vet was gay:

“We did decline to host the service – not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it – yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”

[And…]

“Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness,” Simons said.

How did Simons show “love and kindness” to the family of the deceased? By equating their loved one with a murderer:

The pastor said that he could imagine a similar situation involving a different sin. Perhaps a mother who is a member of the church loses a son who is a thief or murderer, Mr. Simons said. The church would surely volunteer to hold a service, he said.

“But I don’t think the mother would submit photos of her son murdering someone,” he said. “That’s a red light going off.”

And then, having proved he is totally unprincipled, at least as it comes to Jesus’ message of love and inclusiveness especially for society’s outcasts, Simons sums up: “Can you hold the event and condone the sin and compromise our principles? We can’t.”

What about the sins of hatred and bigotry, Gary?

[…]

Chicken Dance Time! Rove is Leaving

Trish

As Karl Rove leaves the White House to spend more time with his family and work on his memoir, we can’t help but say, “We knew it!”

The timing is suspect, coming just as the Democrats in Congress are really digging in to how the White House has been run, possibly even finally getting at those deleted emails.

The line that was deleted in later versions: “He’s been talking with the president for a long time, about a year, regarding when might be good to go,” Perino said.

This is the quote you’re seeing in all the stories concerning the “why now” aspect of Rove’s departure:

“I just think it’s time,” Rove told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”

But look at how the earlier versions quoted White House deputy spokestool Dana Perino when she made the happy announcement.

“He’s been talking with the president for a long time, about a year, regarding when might be good to go,” Perino said. “But there’s always a big project to work on, and his strategic abilities, and our need for his support, kept him here. He said there’s never a good time to leave, just the ‘right’ time.”

He’s been talking to the president for about a year? My bet is he’s been talking to president about it since last November, when Rove proved dead wrong on the midterm elections. I think he was a hair away from following Donald Rumsfeld out the door back then and has been on thin ice ever since, as Scooter Libby was convicted and as the Alberto Gonzalez scandal continues to grow.

Of course, no matter when Rove leaves, we’re just thanking God and Greyhound that he’s going.