Frank Rich Tells Why Rove Bugged Out

Interestingly, in Frank Rich’s Op/Ed piece in the New York Times today, he not only pinpoints why Rove resigned, but he also identifies the reason most Democrats missed it. Rich says that no GOP candidate gave a tribute to Rove and “the conservative commentariat was often surprisingly harsh.” “It is this condemnation of Rove from his own ideological camp — not the Democrats' familiar litany about his corruption, polarizing partisanship, dirty tricks, etc. — that the White House and Mr. Rove wanted to bury in the August dog days.” And it was that condemnation from the right that “crystallized the monochromatic whiteness at the dark heart of Rovian Republicanism”, Rich said. The Republican Party may be overwhelmingly white as only a Rotary Club in 1954 could be white, Rich says, but the population of the United States is edging toward nonwhites being in the majority. The Republican Party, as exemplified by Karl Rove is an anachronism. It’s a relic. And the exquisite moment when this was shown to the world, Rich said, was George Allen's (R-VA) "macaca" moment a year ago. During Allen's re-election campaign, Allen not only insulted a campaign worker from Jim Webb's campaign by calling him a monkiey, but he welcomed him "to America" and to"the real world of Virginia". The incredible racism and arrogance of the GOP was caught on YouTube and it was played over and over and over. Just as the Republican Party’s whiteness is a relic, YouTube has made reinventing history in the print medium a relic. Rich credits Ryan Sager, a young conservative New York Sun commentator with giving the best description of the GOP: "The face of the Republican Party in Iowa is the face of a losing party, full of hatred toward immigrants, lust for government subsidies, and the demand that any Republican seeking the office of the presidency acknowledge that he's little more than Jesus Christ's running mate." “That face,” Rich says, “at once contemptuous and greedy and self-righteous, is Karl Rove's face. Unless someone in his party rolls out a revolutionary new product, it is indelible enough to serve as the Republican brand for a generation.” And that is why Rove had to go. The GOP sees its own face when it sees Karl Rove and that logo is not going to fly in 2008.