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Monday, November 08, 2004

Hail Caesar!!!

Don't expect the Moose to be tossing petals at the feet of our modern Hanna.

Nothing prompts our media to forgive like success. Vicious personal campaigns? Vile attacks on opponents? Underhanded under the radar nastiness? No problem - all is forgotten if the operative, however base and immoral, is victorious. Media mavens merely bow and scrape in Rove's presence. On Sunday, the lion of the Sabbath gabfests, Tim Russert, purred like a pussy cat to the political piranha.

"Please, more access, My Lord."

That is the Moose's take on the media celebration and adoration of Karl Rove, aka, our modern Mark Hanna. Note this description of the loving, relationship between client and hit man in Friday's NY Times

One of McKinley's biographers, Margaret Leech, wrote that Hanna, "cynical in his acceptance of contemporary political practices," was "drawn to McKinley's idealistic standards like a hardened man of the world who becomes infatuated with virgin innocence." Mr. Rove has known the president for more than 30 years, and associates detect a similar dynamic at work.

It has been well documented that Rove is the master of smash-mouth politics dating back to the Nixon days when he implemented dirty tricks for the College Republicans. His most notorious campaign was the vile attack on John McCain during the South Carolina primary. But that was hardly the only one - Rove's smear victims litter the landscape where ever he has tread.

But all of that is ancient history for the fourth estate because Rove was the architect of the Bush victory. Nary an untoward word about his vile past is uttered. Mooseketeers should dismiss all press laments about the negative nature of contemporary campaigns as long as they go soft on Dr. Smear.

The Moose is an Old Testament mammal who doesn't turn the other antler!

One intrepid scribe, however, Josh Green, got it right in the November issue of the Atlantic -

He [Rove] seems to understand-indeed, to count on -the media's unwillingness or inability, whether from squeamishness, laziness or professional caution, ever to give a full estimate of him or his work. It is ultimately not just Rove's skill but his character that allows him to perform on entirely different plane. Along with remarkable strategic skills, he has both an understanding of the media's unstated self-limitations and a willingness to fight in territory where conscience forbids most others.

Give that man a Pulitzer!
-- Posted at 9:16 AM | Link to this post | Email this post