Karl Rove Is Awesome

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Yesterday a friend of ours attended the Karl Rove fundraiser we first linked to on Wednesday. We asked him to take notes and he obliged, writing down a number of interesting things Rove had to say about the current election and President Bush.

- Rove was introduced by Republican congressman, Doc Hastings, who said of Rove that he "understands policy." Ah, the power of understatement.

- Karl opened by saying that he had a lot of "fun" in the White House and then launched in to talking about Clinton and Obama.

- Of Hillary, he said that she was the first, and to his knowledge, the only First Lady to have an office in the West Wing. If anyone had anything they wanted to run past Bill, it went through Hillary first. We leave it to the reader to discern whether this was because Hillary had a lot of influence over Bill or if she just wanted to insert herself wherever possible.

- Regarding their politics, Rove said that Hillary was obviously a liberal Democrat but that Barack was a really, really liberal Democrat.

- Rove said that he first knew Obama through his former deputy, Ken Mehlman who had known Obama at Harvard.

- On their separate spending proposals (to date, not including any future general election bribes/commitments), of which Obama has pledged $662B and Hillary $695B, Rove said that such increases would cause the budget to increase by 25%. Do your own math on what that would require in the way of new and increased taxes.

- When Justices Alito and Roberts reached the Senate floor for confirmation (both of which, mind you, had broad bipartisan support), both Hillary and Barack voted against their confirmation.

Yeah, that Barack, he's such a bipartisan unifier.

- Rove also noted that Obama voted against increased spending to give soldiers much needed body armor, MRE's, and fuel.

We think this is called supporting the troops without actually, you know, supporting the troops.

- He said that he didn't like Hillary, but he grudgingly admitted that she could handle the presidency.

- Rove said that Barack was "one of the most cooly arrogant people in politics." He said that he was "smart and arrogant but he doesn't do his home work." Because of this, Rove doesn't believe that Obama is up to the task. He does not believe that Obama is competent.

- Talking about Obama's background, he said that Barack was a "Chicago machine politician." We suspect there will be more stories about his Chicago background as the election continues.

- Karl predicted that Obama will win the Democratic primary. He admitted that he had first predicted a win for Hillary and that the reason he was wrong was because her "fatal flaws" had emerged earlier than he originally anticipated.

- Switching gears a little bit, Rove talked about Dino Rossi's run for Governor in 2004 in which high shenanigans in King county caused Rossi to lose the election by just over 100 votes. This wouldn't have happened, Rove pointed out, if the 6000 voters in Eastern Washington who voted for President Bush had also voted for Dino Rossi.

With Governor Christine Gregoire's approval rating at an all-time low, those voters will be the key to getting Rossi elected this fall.

- Observing John McCains crossover appeal, Rove suggested that for the first time in a number of years, the Pacific Northwest--specifically Washington and Oregon--could be in play. In our opinion, Oregon has a greater chance of voting for McCain than does Washington, but hey, there's always audacious hope, right?

- For those worried about increased threats from Iran and North Korea and a retreat in either Afghanistan or Iraq, Rove said that "President Bush will exercise all the power available to him to accomplish these goals and keep America safe."

- Widely criticized as an uncaring warmonger, completely out of touch with reality or the impact of the war on soldiers and their families, Rove pointed out that President Bush has in fact met with the families of nearly 3000 soldiers who have lost their lives in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Rove said it was the President's habit to schedule these meetings as the last item of the day so that he would not have to leave early. He further said that it was his habit to give these families as much times as they needed and let them say whatever was in their hearts.

The picture of an uncaring President Bush could not be further from the truth.

Rove spoke of one meeting with the family of a soldier from Reno, Nevada. He attended the meeting with President Bush. This story echoes pretty much exactly what Rove told my father and those with him at the dinner yesterday.

He said that President Bush typically asks each member of the family if there is anything he can do. He finally turned to the father who, Rove noted, seemed a little reserved, to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Rove assumed the father would say something critical of President Bush and the war, which happens from time to time. Instead, the father was angry that Navy regulations prohibited him from serving.

His oldest son, a Marine, had died while serving near Fallujah. His second son was also serving in the military and he wanted to join to honor his sons and provide medical service to hurt soldiers.

So, he asked President Bush to grease the wheels so that he could join the Navy Medical Corps. Krissoff said that his "goal is to work in a combat surgical unit, a forward unit."


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