The New York Times reports that some GOPers are no longer too sure that they want to let Karl Rove call their shots:
Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser, is struggling to steer the Republican Party to victory this fall at a time when he appears to have the least political authority since he came to Washington, party officials said.
Mr. Rove remains a dominant adviser to President Bush, administration officials say. But outside the White House, as Mr. Bush’s popularity has waned, and as questions have arisen among Republicans about the White House’s political acumen, the party’s candidates are going their own way in this difficult election season far more than they have in any other campaign Mr. Rove has overseen.
Some are disregarding Mr. Rove’s advice, despite his reputation as the nation’s premier strategist. They are criticizing Mr. Bush or his policies. They are avoiding public events with the president and Mr. Rove.
Influential conservative commentators have openly broken with the White House, calling into question the continued enthusiasm of evangelicals, economic conservatives and other groups that Mr. Rove has counted on to win elections. Some Republicans are ignoring Mr. Rove’s efforts to hold the party together on issues like immigration and Iraq.
In a reflection of this difficult environment, the White House has decided to concentrate nearly all its resources on the critical fight to keep control of Congress, party officials said, largely stepping away from the governors’ races, at least for now.
This is natural. But it’s going to be interesting to see if Rove’s influence will continue in a couple of areas. One of them: the fate of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who is a political albatross around the GOPs neck.
Will GOPers continue to defend Donald Rumsfeld if the Secretary of Defense continues to be unpopular with voters who aren’t Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity fans (and some who are)? Some GOPers are already beginning to gingerly hint that they’d be happier if Mr. Rumsfeld left to spend more time with his family. Presumably, Rove wants Rumsfeld to stay — or is the White House looking for a point where they can shove him overboard?
There are other issues as well but as poll numbers either continue to head south or stay largely in the southern hemisphere, it’s understandable that it’ll be every GOPer for him or herself.
Even so, as Democrats have learned in the past, you can’t count Karl Rove out until the ballots have been counted. And maybe not even then…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.