What are Rove and the Republicans up to?

Digby has an interesting take on the Rove statement. It was not a mistake on Rove's part.

"I watched the Rove interview on Scarborough last night and it's quite clear that this is a coordinated public relations "rollout." The Bush administration clearly believes that creating this controversy will result in turning down the heat on Iraq and boosting their prospects on other issues. I think they are counting on the press and the distracted public to see "partisanship" running amuck, which is how the Republicans have already positioned themselves for the '06 elections. Bush and his speech condemning the Democrats as the "party of the stop sign" has already laid out the roadmap. But the immediate agenda is to rile up the base with red meat attacks on "liberals," re-brand Democrats as wimps on national security and intimidate ... wavering Republicans."

This explains why the Republicans en masse are refusing to back away from Rove's statement. The Monterey Herald published the following AP report:

Republicans, meanwhile, have recently condemned House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for calling the Iraq War a "grotesque mistake," and demanded and finally got an apology from Durbin for his linking detainee abuse and Nazis.

And they were unapologetic about Rove's comments.

Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman, speaking in Puerto Rico, said there was no need to apologize because "what Karl Rove said is true." White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, asked about the Rove dispute on CNN, noted, "We have seen pretty hot rhetoric from both sides of the aisle lately."

White House communications director Nicolle Devenish said Rove was speaking "very broadly about the liberal movement" and that he never referred to Democrats. "I think the Democrats are misguided in their attacks on Karl Rove," she said.

Increasing public doubts about the Iraq war have emboldened Democrats to challenge the president's policies. Republicans, in turn, contend that criticism undermines the war on terror.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican running for re-election in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, issued a statement urging both sides to keep politics out of the war on terrorism. "We owe it to those we lost to keep partisan politics out of the discussion and keep alive the united spirit that came out of 9/11," he said.

Digby think this is part of a plan by Rove to throw raw meat to the Republican base on the assumption that a revved up base give the public the impression that the Republicans are unstoppable. Then this Summer Bush is going to nominate a totally unacceptable candidate for supreme Court Chief Justice.

The timing on this Rovian statement is because Bush's polls are dropping over the Iraq War. They have to get those polls either up or made irrelevant before the Supreme Court nomination occurs. At the moment they are losing Republicans, so the strong attack on the Democrats is intended to counter that.

This is just a salvo in what is going to be a really hot Summer. When Bush gets into trouble he responds by becoming extremely nasty and pushing the limits of both legality and morality.

If the Democrats respond in kind, as they must if not to be painted as wimps, the media is going to be in a state of shock and the public is going to be saying that all politicians are nasty.

Look for nasy weather ahead.