Patterico's Pontifications

6/29/2006

Karl Rove Does *Not* Control What I Say. (Did I Say That Right, Karl?)

Filed under: Humor,Morons — Patterico @ 6:51 am



The left’s current theory is that the right is following Karl Rove’s bidding in attacking newspapers for revealing classified secrets. For example, Andrew Sullivan:

Rove needed a third week of p.r. offensive. After Zarqawi Week and “Cut and Run” Week, we are now almost through “Kill Keller” Week. He says jump. The blogosphere has sadly learned to ask: how high?

And Patterico commenter steve:

I’m beginning to think Keller was played. They anticipated he’d wring his hands for two weeks or so and eventually run the story. Since the public is rightfully behind any such scheme to track terror paymasters, the trap was sprung. Roveco loosed the blog and radio hounds.

I was going to write something about how ridiculous this argument is, but I’m a little too busy right now. I have to go pick up Karl’s dry cleaning, and after that, he has some weeds he needs pulled in his organic vegetable garden.

Hey, it could be worse. At least I don’t have to do his laundry. Yesterday I saw Jeff from Protein Wisdom headed towards Karl’s office with an empty laundry basket, muttering: “I just hope it’s not underwear day. Please God don’t let it be underwear day.” About 10 minutes later, he was headed the other direction with a full basket of white clothing, and he was screaming, to nobody in particular: “I HATE underwear day!”

True story.

OK, I’ll admit it, lefties, you’re totally right about Rove. Every word. When Truthout came out with that story about the Rove indictment, I remember hearing Goldstein ranting about how you had to do your own laundry in prison. I’m not sure he’s totally right about that, but I understand what he meant. And Ace of Spades and Allahpundit were giving each other high-fives over the possibility of not having to spend any more Sunday mornings scraping burnt “eggie-weggies” off the cookware.

So, yeah. Some of us were actually hoping Jason Leopold was right.

There. I said it.

44 Responses to “Karl Rove Does *Not* Control What I Say. (Did I Say That Right, Karl?)”

  1. i was hoping jason leopold was right, too.

    assistant devil's advocate (151583)

  2. What does Karl make *you* do?

    (It’s a big, fat softball. Swing, and swing hard!)

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  3. Odd that we would conclude our posts will exactly the same line. Rovian coincidence? I think not.

    KM (910b19)

  4. Actually, the part about hoping Rove would be indicted was itself part of the Rovian plot. I am not sure exactly how it helps him, but I am sure that it does, somehow. All things do.

    Xrlq (f52b4f)

  5. Really? Rove has an organic vegetable garden? I always pictured him as more of a DDT/Agent Orange- type gardener.

    MayBee (8aec89)

  6. What really sucks is we had to name our super-secret Google Group Townhill because the name we wanted was already taken.

    Stephen Macklin (4ea65b)

  7. Keller’s getting Rather-ized.

    TNugent (6128b4)

  8. More on the smoke-filled back room…

    (As discussed a few days ago.) Hey, at least you guys have never been asked to scoop up the doggie poo in his backyard, like I’ve had to do. Now that is a shit job. So to…

    mellow-drama (72c8fd)

  9. What a bunch of losers!

    Karl at least pays me, and I promised him I wouldn’t cash any of the checks until 2025.

    I’m going to be really rich.

    patch (68ed87)

  10. You know those “jobs Americans won’t do”?

    We do ’em.

    For Karl.

    See-Dubya (ae518a)

  11. The lefts current theory is that the right is following Karl Roves bidding in attacking newspapers for revealing classified secrets.

    The left’s current theory, as defined by Sullivan and a patterico commenter.

    [Let’s get you on record disagreeing then. — P]

    actus (6234ee)

  12. All Karl tells me is to vote Republican. I wish he’d tell me to make threatening videotapes and release them to the news media like he tells Osama Bin Laden.

    trentk269 (3d3bfe)

  13. [Lets get you on record disagreeing then. P]

    I dont think Karl Rove or Kos give marching orders to bloggers. But I do think Rove and other leaders, who actually have power, set policies and directs official mouthpieces to produce memes which will reverberate amongst certain audiences ready to receive them. For example, the resolution in congress is another way to fan the flames, or ride the wave, of the theme that the press is treasonous.

    I do think that it might be a somewhat useful analogy for how things work. But it can be quite misleading in other instances, specially if people take literally the idea that it’s marching orders. It’s not. It’s the production of concepts, ideas, points and research and action which will reverberate throughout our political culture.

    People aren’t saying “how high.” They’re saying “right on.” As if on cue.

    [As if on cue. As if he can cue us to say what he wants. Which he can. In between forcing us to do his menial chores. Which was the point of the post. — P]

    actus (6234ee)

  14. That’s why we’re all behind the White House and Senate immigration policies, Actus. As if on cue.

    Or is that just…cover?

    See-Dubya (ae518a)

  15. To clarify trentk269’s comment: On Larry King, Walter Cronkite accused Karl Rove of arranging the Osama Bin Laden video released a few weeks before the election. Maybe Rove actually did do that, then brilliantly leaked his own role to Cronkite knowing he would tell Larry King that – causing Cronkite to make an ass out of himself and the left. A plan so crazy it just might work, and it did!

    Wesson (c20d28)

  16. Ha, peasants! I’m Bush’s Butler, as my sweetie pie, buttercup of a honey makes clear all too often.

    And just to be clearly in denial, opening the door for Mr. Walks on Water when he comes to give Bush his orders for the day does not count.

    Dusty (e28a9f)

  17. As if on cue. As if he can cue us to say what he wants.

    You’re not on cue. But some reactions are as if you were. You’re not saying “how high.” You’re saying “right on.” Independently. Willingly. Autonomously. It just so happens that you follow this one position and are primed to receive their actions. But you’re probably not the same on other issues. You’re not on cue of rove. It just appears that way.

    actus (6234ee)

  18. Koo koo!

    Black Jack (d8da01)

  19. Mein Gott im Himmel!

    He’s producing memes? Would these be independent. willing. autonomous memes? Or just the garden-variety brainwashed kind?

    No matter. I *hate* memes, especially when they do that stale, neocon-trapped-in-a-quagmire routine.

    Get a rope.

    Cassandra (c9069a)

  20. The entire concept of “memes” is a meme.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  21. It’s more like Boston Red Sox fans chanting “Yankees s***”. Not centrally co-ordinated but not the product of a great deal of carefully reasoned thought either.

    For many people politics is like sports. You root for your side and dis the opposition. There is not much thought given to which side deserves to win.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  22. Are you seriously making that charge about the people who comment here? I’ve rarely seen a bunch of people this size more able to comment intelligently without descending into a big boatload of namecalling and idiocy.

    Personally, I think a lot of people who comment here do give a great deal of thought to each side and the merits thereof.

    Anwyn (01a5cc)

  23. “other leaders, who actually have power, set policies and directs official mouthpieces to produce memes which will reverberate amongst certain audiences ready to receive them”

    I know what you mean, actus. Such as the meme that poverty is the root cause of terrorism, promoted by one Democrat Senator.

    And this meme this meme, promoted by the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committe, and also which seems to have been the position of the NYTimes, which, btw, has also promoted the meme that tracking the financial transactions of terrorists will make us safer, and, oddly enough, the meme that disclosing a secret program to track financial transactions of terrorists won’t render it less effective, but will actually prevent it from making a horrible mistake – – you know, like the Bay of Pigs.

    TNugent (6128b4)

  24. Actus, are you wearing your “Meme People Suck” t-shirt today?

    TNugent (6128b4)

  25. Actus, are you wearing your “Meme People Suck” t-shirt today?

    You people seem to think that memes are a bad thing

    actus (6234ee)

  26. Anwyn, I think if a Democrat like Clinton was President and a conservative paper had disclosed classified information in a similar way you would not see the same outrage among right wing bloggers and commenters. So I think the complaints about the NYT are mostly about partisanship. You can be partisan without descending into namecalling and idiocy. You can even be embarrassed about some of the people on your side as Patterico appears to be about Ann Coulter.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  27. “I think if a Democrat like Clinton was President and a conservative paper had disclosed classified information in a similar way you would not see the same outrage among right wing bloggers and commenters. ”

    You think that, do you? And your thoughts somehow constitute the foundation of an argument?

    “So I think the complaints about the NYT are mostly about partisanship. ”

    This is your *premise*, not your conclusion.

    Try again.

    Bostonian (a37519)

  28. JBS, National Security is like sausage. The finished product looks ok, but getting there isn’t always pretty. The difference between Dems and Republicans is that Republicans understand that revealing exactly what goes into the sausage is a bad idea, even when a Dem is in the White House. Many Dems (not all, but enough so that they can’t be dismissed as an unusual exception, and in particular, the Dems publicity organs in the MSM, such as the NYTimes), show no such self-restraint. So, a conservative paper that reveals national security secrets? Sure, I guess it’s possible, when pigs learn to fly. And we all know that if pigs could fly, they wouldn’t be pigs (or sausage).

    TNugent (6128b4)

  29. So, a conservative paper that reveals national security secrets? Sure, I guess it’s possible, when pigs learn to fly.

    From Wingnut daily

    actus (6234ee)

  30. It’s always just a little bit sad when people can’t look at decent bit of satire and chuckle even if they don’t agree with the politics. Lighten up a bit, have a beer, smoke something and relax.

    Stephen Macklin (4ea65b)

  31. TNugent, Robert Novak named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in a July 14, 2003 column after being asked not to. There was a lot of outrage about that leak too, with fantasies of treason trials. Not a lot of overlap with people outraged about the swift story in the NYT however. Just politics as usual in DC.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  32. Mabye that’s because Al-Queda is too busy reading the New York Times to read Robert Novak.

    trentk269 (3d3bfe)

  33. What’s a meme?

    organshoes (b905c2)

  34. People like Andrew Sullivan believe that everyone else actually agrees with them, deep inside (or that he believes that his always right, and every deep inside really knows he’s right), but simply disagrees publically because they are either a) evil (or some selfish motive) or b) take orders from some secret masters.

    JeremyR (e6cefc)

  35. You people seem to think that memes are a bad thing

    Memes are the work of Karl Rove Satan and his minions and deserve to be obliterated from the face of the earth.

    Aside from that, I have no problem with them.

    Cassandra (c9069a)

  36. Joseph Goebbels (Nazi propaganda minister): “It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

    blubonnet (86405d)

  37. Hey, blubonnet. Welcome back. I’ll take “cyanide Joe” one step farther. (You know the #$%%sucker killed his own kids in the Bunker, right? People who who bring up Nazis in an argument …) In America, it’s the absolute right of any person to supervise the formation of public opinion.

    nk (41da82)

  38. Actus, WorldNetDaily? Is that the best you can do? No cigar. You might as well use Weekly World News.

    JBS, the word “column” has significance — it’s the writer’s opinion, for which the writer has responsibility. Sure, there’s some editorial responsibility also, and arguably it should be the same as news articles where factual assertions are concerned — but it’s not in practice. See NYTimes, any Krugman column. And even assuming that the publisher bears the same responsibility for the content of an opinion column as for a purported news article, you’re statement of the issue in the Plame case is disingenuous. It is unlawful to out a covert operative, but proving the agent’s status as such is a requirement, not something you get to assume. No cigar for you, either.

    TNugent (6128b4)

  39. 5 Leftists on SCOTUS: The NY Times has the absolute right to dictate US government policy.

    Black Jack (d8da01)

  40. TNugent, of course you would have to prove whatever law you were using to prosecute applied to disclosing Plame’s status as a CIA agent but the same is true for the material in the NYT stories also. You don’t get to assume the NYT disclosed classified information just because some NYT hater claims it was classified. In fact in a later post Patterico states it appears none of the material was classified at the time the NYT published it.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  41. You’re right, JBS, in either case facts would have to be proven. But what was your original point? That the NYTimes didn’t really disclose sensitive information for the sake of partisanship, or that conservatives would be just as indifferent to national security issues as the NYTimes if the Dems were running things? I thought it was the latter. Assuming that each case could be proven, is the Plame case the best you can do? The former covert status (certainly not current — her association with CIA wasn’t classified after 2003 and it’s questionable whether she was truly covert at any time within the 5 years preceding the publication) of a desk-bound CIA analyst who openly commutes to and from CIA offices at Langley doesn’t quite rise to the same level as the secret status of a program used to track terrorists’ international funds transfers, does it?

    TNugent (6128b4)

  42. TNugent, my point is conservatives will exaggerate the damge done by unfavorable (to conservatives) leaks while ignoring or minimizing the damage done by favorable leaks. Liberals of course will do the opposite. I don’t see a lot of evidence of a sincere concern about leaks in general.

    Regardless of how much damage the Plame leak actually did (I suspect not much), Novak did arrogantly (to use Patterico’s word) unilaterally decide to disclose that Plame was a CIA operative although the government had requested that he not do so.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  43. Ok, JBS, I’ll go along with the first part of that. Maybe the second paragraph, too (I guess it depends on how hard the government tried to keep Plame’s former status a secret — you might say the same about the NYTimes story, but then you’re getting close to if not into Rovian plot/conspiracy theorist territory, and somehow I suspect that’s not familiar ground for you). I think there is some sincere concern about the NYTimes/LATimes leak, but we probably won’t ever really know just how damaging the disclosure was (at least unless the Times publishes that, too). At any rate, there’s plenty of partisanship mixed in as well.

    TNugent (6128b4)

  44. William Blum: “A terrorist is someone who has a bomb and doesn’t have an airforce.”

    Edward Abbey: “Apatriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

    From THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM: Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokes-people and executives, censorship especially in war time, is very common.”

    Herman Goering (in Hitler’s base staff): “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peace-makers for ‘lack of patriotism’ and ‘exposing the country to danger’. It works the same in any country.”

    James Madison: “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

    blubonnet (86405d)


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