Fighting Rovian sleaze

Jules Witcover takes on Karl Rove's latest the-Democrats-are-traitors pitch in Playing the patriotism card again 01/25/06 Tribune Media Service.

His coverage on this one is less analytical and more "just the facts, ma'am". But his description of the situation sure seems to lead to the same conclusion the Democratic netroots have been drawing. Which is, the Demcrats have to fight this head-on and not imagine that mealy-mouthing it or ducking the issue or "triangulating" it away will do the job:

In the 2004 election, the Bush camp pulled off a similar trick by trumping the Democrats' efforts to make it a referendum on Bush's war of choice in Iraq. It redirected the campaign onto a question of Democratic nominee John Kerry's service in Vietnam - playing the patriotism card again in another guise.

It's a commentary on Rove's political genius that he can take the furor over domestic spying - now described by Bush as "a terrorist surveillance program" - and attempt to turn it from a negative into a source of public support.

The Republican White House and Congress already are reeling from the Jack Abramoff lobbyist scandal falling mostly on GOP heads, with Democrats aiming to exploit it in November's midterm elections. If Rove can make a purse out of the sow's ear of domestic spying, and thereby trump the Democrats' corruption issue, he will have outsmarted them yet another time.

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