Politico: Rove "Cheery as Ever"



(image via salon)

Now that his political capital has been entirely spent, the kinder, gentler Karl Rove is making the rounds this week and Mike Allen and John Harris of The Politico had a "wide ranging" hourlong interview with Karl Rove last week. Some of which:

"White House senior adviser Karl Rove says that the 2008 presidential candidates have been pushed into such an early focus on tactics, fundraising and publicity that they risk a backlash from voters long before the first primary ballots are cast.

"'I think it is going to mean that people develop a persona earlier and wear out their welcome earlier than they would," he told The Politico in an interview. "I think there's going to come some point this year where people are going to basically be saying: 'I'm largely disinterested in the contest.' ''

This, of what TheHill calls, "The most wide-open presidential rivalry in modern times." But Rove is probably right. With a year left to go in the contest, one would have to be supernaturally interesting to hold the public's attention until Iowa. Somewhere, the patient Al Gore is chuckling softly, setting a place on his mantle for the Oscar, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. And:

"During the interview late Friday afternoon, Rove was cheery as ever, teasing his underlings and spooning peanut butter on green apple slices as he spoke clinically about the drubbing Republicans took in November, when they lost the House and Senate."

What wasn't mentioned was that Rove was "cheery" because those Apple Slices being suffocated in gooey ungent, in Rove's fevered imaginatory devisings, Rahm Emmanuel and Nancy Pelosi.