As Rachel Maddow (Air America) discussed tonight, the coverage of Karl Rove's resignation did not really deal with why he was so controversial ... well, at least not the MSM coverage. This is not surprising. When it came out that he was involved with the Valerie Plame outing, it would have been helpful if we were told more about his dirty tactics in the past. In fact, he was fired by President Bush (Sr) because of press leaks! Though one article did note his stepdad eventually announced his homosexuality, adding to the gay Republican connection, the coverage was mostly rather neutral, at best noting his controversial reputation.
This is b.s. ... but fairly typical. Over and over again, we are not given the proper context in news coverage. This is a useful ignorance promotion device. Sadly, Molly Ivins is no longer around to remind us about Rove's tactics over the years, though even conservatives (including Andrew Sullivan) have been out there stating their disgust at the path he has taken. The divisive wedge issue path that in the long run was hurtful to the party's interests. In fact, one gets the idea that if his dirty tactics were more successful of late, there would be less dissent. Likewise, given all this talk of the "de facto Republican majority" in Congress, cries of "failure!" is a bit over the top as well.
[Basically, Republicans are annoyed that they took the risk and were bitten ... well, you are stuck with being connected with dirty business, tainted by it all. You deserve to be tainted a whole lot more. It should be deemed bloody obvious that the party does not deserve to be trusted with power ... for years to come, if I had my druthers. Will take a long time to clean out that taint. But, as I suggest, sadly this is not quite the common wisdom. This spin job is in large part Rovian as well.]
There is some bite left in that dog yet. Articles stating how the Dems caved on the FISA bill, such as one in the Washington Post on Sunday, which failed to note how American citizens are affected. Mentions of terrorist risks, but no mention of how repeatedly conveniently timed claims (or conveniently announced ... the actual intel repeatedly rather stale) were used for political ends in the past. That is, use of the "war on terra" (tm) as a scare tactic to promote partisan ends. Let it be noted that Rove fit Bush like a glove ... the reason they were such powers was that both were at heart assholes. It's not like Rove had to sell the dirty take no prisoners approach ... he had a willing audience.
So, it is sadly typical that Rove end's his time in the administration just as he spent it there ... getting off easy. This is aggravating, but oh so predictable. Over and over again, this administration this despicable things that at best were deemed unfortunate or distasteful, but not really worth more than our disdain. Politicians are disdained all the time ... you need more than that. There appeared to be some assumption that you know these people have shame, so they would be so embarrassed or something, that they would act like non-assholes. They just laughed at the stupidity of the idea, rightly disdainful in fact that it was offered as a credible possibility.
Meanwhile, Gonzo has more power. Rove is gone though. Let's be all glad and stuff, though in the process he gets to go off, make some money, and probably remain powerful behind the scenes. Cheers.