'GENIUS' NO MORE
By DEBORAH ORIN-EILBECK
New York Post
November 13, 2006 -- NO one's calling Karl Rove "Boy Genius" anymore. After last week's election debacle, some Republicans wonder aloud if it's time for President Bush's political guru to follow Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and walk the plank.
The final blow for many Republicans was President Bush's decision to fire Rumsfeld right after the election - instead of a few months before, when it might have helped save the House and Senate.
"Everyone knew the election was about Iraq except them," says a disgusted GOP strategist, noting that it was Rove's job to make sure Bush knew.
The White House line is that Bush didn't want to dump Rummy in July because that would look like he was playing politics with military policy. But acting in July would have shown that Bush was in charge. Firing Rumsfeld after losing the election still comes off as playing politics - and it looks as if Bush is a follower, not a leader.
In fact, some Republicans began second-guessing Rove right after the 2004 election, when Bush pulled off only a narrow win over the hopelessly incompetent John Kerry. "How could a wartime president serving a nervous change-averse nation actually risk losing re-election, especially to a weak Democratic opponent?" fumes another Republican strategist.
But the real complaints started coming on the Bush team's post-election moves. Rove, guiding White House policy as well as politics, pushed for a Social Security fix - convinced it would win over democratic-leaning voters and give Republicans a long-term majority. He couldn't have been more off-base.
As it played out, Democratic attacks on Social Security reform made the issue a loser for the GOP with just those groups. And all the talk of the crisis down the road distracted attention from the ongoing economic boom, making it far harder for the president to take credit for America's unprecedented prosperity.
But the worst problem was that the president seemed to be putting the War on Terror, and the war in Iraq, on the back burner. With American troops being killed, the White House seemed to think that America's top priority should be a fiscal crisis at least a decade away.
(There's more, here.)
New York Post
November 13, 2006 -- NO one's calling Karl Rove "Boy Genius" anymore. After last week's election debacle, some Republicans wonder aloud if it's time for President Bush's political guru to follow Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and walk the plank.
The final blow for many Republicans was President Bush's decision to fire Rumsfeld right after the election - instead of a few months before, when it might have helped save the House and Senate.
"Everyone knew the election was about Iraq except them," says a disgusted GOP strategist, noting that it was Rove's job to make sure Bush knew.
The White House line is that Bush didn't want to dump Rummy in July because that would look like he was playing politics with military policy. But acting in July would have shown that Bush was in charge. Firing Rumsfeld after losing the election still comes off as playing politics - and it looks as if Bush is a follower, not a leader.
In fact, some Republicans began second-guessing Rove right after the 2004 election, when Bush pulled off only a narrow win over the hopelessly incompetent John Kerry. "How could a wartime president serving a nervous change-averse nation actually risk losing re-election, especially to a weak Democratic opponent?" fumes another Republican strategist.
But the real complaints started coming on the Bush team's post-election moves. Rove, guiding White House policy as well as politics, pushed for a Social Security fix - convinced it would win over democratic-leaning voters and give Republicans a long-term majority. He couldn't have been more off-base.
As it played out, Democratic attacks on Social Security reform made the issue a loser for the GOP with just those groups. And all the talk of the crisis down the road distracted attention from the ongoing economic boom, making it far harder for the president to take credit for America's unprecedented prosperity.
But the worst problem was that the president seemed to be putting the War on Terror, and the war in Iraq, on the back burner. With American troops being killed, the White House seemed to think that America's top priority should be a fiscal crisis at least a decade away.
(There's more, here.)
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