Bull Moose comments on yesterday’s highly touted staff shake up that saw Press Secretary Scott McClellan get the door and White House political guru Karl Rove basically be taken off some domestic policy supervising and be centered back on the 2006 mid-term elections. Moose notes that whichever party has the angriest members flocking to the polls will win and writes:
Much is being made of the fact that Karl Rove was demoted and stripped of his policy responsibilities. The Moose begs to differ. In fact, Mr, Rove was handed the most important portfolio in ’06 – White House Director of Anger Management.
In essence, Karl will be the anti-Dr. Phil of the Republican Party. Rather than settling the elephant down, he must rile him up. Rove’s task is to make Republicans angry with Democrats again. It is a Herculean task given the circumstances. He must find targets whether they be gays, “defeatist anti-patriotic Democrats” or big taxing liberals. What wedge issues are left in his cupboard?
In order to get even, get mad.
In other words: Rove has to push the polarization buttons. Demotion? We noted yesterday that it didn’t seem like that to us at all — unless re-aiming your biggest gun on taking-down one target is somehow less than trying to aim the gun at several ones at the same time. The Democrats shouldn’t be applauding Rove’s change in job description; they should be preparing for it.
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.