Karl Rove: The modern Universal Spider (*)

There is more to the Karl Rove Republican election system than just a set of strategies and messages. There is also Rove himself. When you look at the unitary national Republican Party, the key in many ways is Karl Rove himself. This is an excerpt of that the LA Times has to say about Rove.

First, he holds the title of White House Deputy Chief of Staff:

"Rove has duties beyond his official role of working on foreign and domestic policy development. He has the broadest portfolio of any presidential aide in history: He micromanages policy, leads outreach efforts to key GOP constituencies and supervises election strategy down to the precinct level, not only for the president but for congressional candidates as well.

Rove also maintains contacts at leading news organizations and often provides background guidance to top reporters and editors, as he did for Cooper. These contacts are part of Rove's less-discussed role of crafting Bush's image, enforcing the strict Bush code of discipline and jumping hard on perceived opponents of the president.

In addition to mastering regulatory issues that can affect key races, Rove also calls potential candidates for Senate seats, encouraging his favorites to run and urging others to stand down. Last month, he met privately at the White House with the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Allan Bense, hoping to entice Bense to challenge Sen. Nelson next year.

Rove serves, too, as Bush's ambassador to the conservative movement, and occasionally attends meetings of leading activists hosted by Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist. Rove helped mastermind a new GOP strategy of treating national elections like a series of county commission contests. He can recite precinct-by-precinct data in key battleground states and counties from memory, and he developed the 2004 plan of finding new voters in the fast-growing exurbs."

The effectiveness of the Rove System depends on two things. First is the way the Republican Party has been structured to finance and apply his system. Second is Karl Rove's own energy and ability to coordinate the many aspects of the system across the nation.

It will be interesting to see if the distraction Rove faces from the Plame Affair will weaken the Republican Party in its efforts to place unacceptable Justices on the Supreme Court. His distraction is already appearing in the fight to nominate John Bolton as UN Ambassador. Steve Clemons notes that "Karl Rove is not available to offer "expressions of confidence" in Mr. Bolton as he has in the past."

I expected a very nasty political season this Summer and for the campaign period leading into the November 2006 midterm elections, but I don't think I really expected the Bush administration to begin to collapse as badly as it seems now to be doing. Since their only tools for dealing with this kind of difficulty are "Smear and Attack" we can expect nothing short of a really nasty 16 months until the midterms. Will it be as effective with Rove distracted, sidelined, or even removed?

It's going to be interesting finding out.

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(*)"The Universal Spider" is the nickname given to the French King Louis XI because he was so effective at unifying the French nation and thwarting the attempts of feudal Lords to take over parts of France for their own purposes.