I've explained
elsewhere that Rove is actually a boggart. Part of the way you deal with a boggart is to create a humorous mental image of the boggart. Join with me if you will in some Harry Potter fun.
The boggart is a creature of the dark arts that has no other power than to create fear by making folks think they see something scary. To deal with a boggart, you simply need to recognize it for what it is, imagine the boggart in a humorous situation, and then shout RIDDIKULUS.
I imagine Karl Rove trying to balance himself on the tiny seat of a large unicycle, looking over his shoulder, awkwardly peddling backwards, while a conveyor belt is carrying him forward through some unpleasant looking brown stuff he's previously dropped. Striding forward is a very large lady carrying a sword and a set of scales. It looks like she knows where she's going, even though she's blindfolded. Can't tell yet whether she's heading toward Karl or someone not yet in my field of vision.
Got an image of your own to share?
Updated 7/20/05 -- This diary has now ceased to be of interest to anyone here at dKos, but I'm updating it for the record to clear up what I now realize may have been a misunderstanding.
Some of us here at dKos believe that the Valerie Plame Wilson “outing” was intended to (a) retaliate against Joe Wilson for speaking out about the way intelligence was handled during the run-up to the war on Iraq and (b) to intimidate others who might be thinking about providing information or analysis that might support criticism of the Bush administration. Karl Rove, who is considered to be the master “political strategist” for the Bush administration, has a reputation for using such tactics. I consider such tactics not only morally wrong but destructive to the civil society required for the proper functioning of democracy. Accordingly, I believe it is in the interests of democracy and civil society to counter such tactics.
The purpose of this diary, then, then was to point out that certain kinds of fear tactics require our cooperation in order to work. If Karl Rove has the ability to intimidate, this is at least in part due to our having given him this power through our own fear. And if we have given Karl Rove power through our own fear, then we can take that power back by refusing to fear Karl Rove. One of the ways we can reduce our fear of something is through the imaginative use of humor. J. K. Rowling illustrates her understanding of this in her portrayal of an imaginary dark creature, the boggart, in her Harry Potter books.
Playing off Rowling, I described a humorous mental image I conjured up of Karl Rove and invited others to conjure up and share similar images. The purpose of this exercise was not to degrade Karl Rove or attack his fundamental value as a human being. If you consider the image I present, you will see that Karl Rove is not depicted in a degraded way. Rather, he is depicted metaphorically as engaging in complicated and precarious “backpedaling” that is not achieving his intended goal and which might result in him experiencing some unpleasant consequences that would primarily result from his own past actions. Is this image critical of Karl Rove? Definitely. Is this image degrading to Karl Rove? I think not. Is this image insulting to Karl Rove? Only if he is innocent of the past behaviors that have led him to be widely viewed as a slash-and-burn political operative. If Karl Rove has not in the past made use of tactics that employ false or misleading information to discredit or embarrass political opponents, then I will be glad to apologize for the image of him I have provided above.
The one regret I have about this diary, however, is that I did not make more clear the purpose and nature of the exercise I was suggesting. I should have done that in order to promote constructive rather than destructive use of the exercise. I apologize to the dKos community for this oversight on my part.
As a part of updating this diary, I've also edited the title. The original title was a play on the nickname that President Bush is said to have bestowed on Karl Rove. Thinking it over, I've decided that nickname is not something I want to make use of.