A
free Karl Rove is a bad thing. A bad, bad thing for the integrity, accountability, and reliability of our entire U.S. Election system.
In 2004, as the exit polls showing Kerry comfortably winning Ohio met with the familiar smug Bush insistence that "he would win anyway" and a convenient late-hour reversal of fortune -- it was Karl Rove who Bush singled-out as the "Architect" of his latest Election "victory" (theft).
Fitzgerald's failure to indict Rove on, at minimum, perjury charges and likely obstruction of justice charges now changes so many things -- and for the worse.
1. The GOP & Rove can claim a vindication of sorts and appear to people (who are not paying close attention) to have operated ethically and within the law.
2. Most significant, Rove is now free to run amuck once again over the whole 2006 election process -- and he did in 2002 and in 2004. Whether this means providing resources to put Leiberman over the top (illegally?) or taking out seats that are going to the D-column (recall: Max Cleland, Wellstone/Mondale) or huge voter disenfranchisement and E-Voting "glitches" -- this spells big, big, trouble for any hopes of a Democratic sweep in the 2006 elections.
3. And after 4-years of horror, mulitlated bodies, torture, beheadings, car-bombs, chaos, wasted money, and broken-lives in Iraq, it seems that the public is now ready to accept any symbolic thing (Zarqawi) as some type of evidence that the Iraq bloodbath was really okay after all. "Things aren't so bad". And, of course, the media is only all too happy to help carry that message as the poltical narrative. "Bush rebounds - Iraq improving". Sounds too good for Hillary Clinton to refute. Even David Letterman, no fan of Bush, felt the need (for no reason) to conceed that "Bush is a 'genuis' if democracy occurs in Iraq 20 years from now" ... never mind at what cost, destruction, terror, inhumanity and injustice.
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So, it seems the pendulum has swung now and unless the Democrats really get off the dime and start speaking out now before it is too late with purpose, integrity, and a sense of unambiguous clarity about the lies, fraud, fear, & bloodshed that this whole government is based upon -- and about our future -- we may be able to "storm the gates" but this broken system (and broken Voting process) will just return the status-quo back into power.
The window of opportunity is now starting to close. The Democratic strategy of playing "rope-a-dope" and hoping that the GOP just self-implodes all on it's own has already failed.
Had Karl Rove been indicted, that could have changed the whole landscape. He would have then had to step down -- a major political embarassment for Bush and the GOP. And Rove would have had to spend his time preparing his defense -- instead of preparing the next Election coup. It would have also kept the Plame matter in the headlines and served as one more scarlet letter for the GOP come Election day.
I am surprised that Fitzgerald could not come up with something .. anything .. perjury? .. to pin on Rove. He appears to have just let him off the hook by allowing excuses like "jogging memory" to prevail over what was clearly false testimony. Now, contrast this to how Susan McDougal was treated (required to agree to fictional testimony in order to avoid prosecution!). I don't know why Fitzgerald treated Rove with "kid gloves" here and let him just walk. The spector of both Rove & Libby under indictment would have been a boat anchor on the GOP - leaving the White House in some turmoil. Instead now, whatever Fitzgerald is able to do with just Libby alone will be moving too slowly to have any impact on the 2006 elections.
The "rope-a-dope" strategy has failed. Things did not break our way and just fall into our lap.
It is therefore long past the time now for the Democrats to have a National campaign strategy with a National "Contract For America" style message that will grab the Country's attention and make people go "yeah, let's put those guys in charge".
I fear that I am seeing a replay of 2002. A hope for pickups evaporated into surprise losses and no-change overs. Only a serious, massive aggressive marketing & branding campaign will put the Democrats back into the public conscience and in the driver's seat.
It hasn't happened yet. It's never happened before (since Clinton's 1992 campaign).
Who can wake these guy up?
Fitzgerald failed -- [Dems] you've got to do the heavy lifting yourself!