Why is Karl Rove invited on every program under the sun and never asked to answer for his own record but instead allowed to pontificate Right Wing talking points?

Misc. quick reaction thoughts:

1) Gen. Powell should amend his comments - rather than counselling the GOP to stop taking marching orders from Rush, he should advise they stop taking marching orders from Rove.

2) In an earlier thread I stated that Grassley would be tough for any challenger to take out. If, however, he is seen to be engaged in specious obstructionism to undermine the popular new President (who was very popular in Iowa), all bets are off.

3) How come even in defeat and disarray the Republicans can still operate in concert and with a united front in the Senate better than Dems can on their best days?

4) The R's will go after Obama early and often because until they can get some dents in his halo effect, he has all the power. This will be a good test to see if Obama's skillful campaigning can carry over into governing. If he can successfully deflect the first 45-60 days of challenges to his authority and legitimacy with approval ratings anywhere near where they are now, he will be set to extraordinary things. If he can't it could be a long four years.

They want their scalp. They won't stop until at least one of Obama's nominees gets flushed--doesn't matter what they may not be guilty of. Even if all his nominees were as pure as saints, the Confederates would apply the Richelieu Principle* and confect feigned scandal after feigned scandal until someone was crushed.

They want a scalp.

*If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.--Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal et Duc de Richelieu

Because conservatives sit on their fat asses watching tv every night instead of getting out and, you know, actually living.

Looking ahead, let's realize that at exactly the same time Republicans are in a huff and puff about Clinton's pardons, George W. Bush is going to be pardoning everyone in his administration. So is this really the time that the GOP wants to make a big deal out of shady pardons?

My guess is that they know Holder will be their number one enemy in the next administration. They hope to paint Holder as a partisan, so that Holder won't dare to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Bush's war crimes. When Holder is asked if he plans to look backwards at Bush's crimes, he should simply state that he will enforce the laws on the books, and that no one is above the law. The R's won't have the votes to stop him.

It would also be a bit crappy to filibuster the first black Attorney General in history. Not that I expect Dems to use the race card in the way that the GOP used the Catholic card during the Roberts/Alito confirmations.

As much as I loathe the Republicans, and abhor their tactics, I admire their willingness to fight tooth and nail. If only the Democrats had a spine.

Of course Rove is concerned about Holder--that is who will be prosecuting him in a few months! (We can hope).

"Why is Karl Rove invited on every program under the sun ..."

Yeah, my thinking exactly. As far as I'm concerned he's got no credibility on any issue.

Then again, neither does the Today Show.

"My guess is that they know Holder will be their number one enemy in the next administration. They hope to paint Holder as a partisan, so that Holder won't dare to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Bush's war crimes."

I think that summerizes things quite nicely. They can't prevent him from becoming Attorney General, but will try to delay and smear as much as possible in order to try and create a bad impression of him among people in the rest of the country.

It will be interesting to see how the American public reacts to both Mr. Holder's initial tenure at the job, and if successful, will they further make the Republicans more irrelevant with each bitter rant.

The Holder fight is about setting a combative, contentious tone for Obama's presidency.

Bring it on motherf*ckers!

Tying this attempt to Rove is brilliant. He can be used the same way the Right uses Move On. "Well, what can you expect, they are following Rove's marching orders."

I admire their willingness to fight tooth and nail.

Instead of admiring it, you should abhor the fact that these elected officials are controlled by outside interests. Hillary was not wrong when she coined the phrase "vast right wing conspiracy". What is astonishing is that the outside interests almost never have competing interests (Harriet Meir may have been an exception). Arlen Specter learned in 2004 that if you don't tow the line, you will have a puppet challenger, while if you do tow it, you don't. I doubt he will actually have competition in his primary in 2010.

This coming from the party that spent the last seven years screeching that any attempt to weaken the presidency in times of national emergency constituted treasons? The GOP is truly the party of Janus.

I guess I can't get too worked up about this because to be honest the GOP is simply irrelevant to national politics starting Jan 20. They literally have (after Franken wins in MN) to hold every single vote in the Senate to pull of obstructions and that's just not going to happen. What you're seeing is the final lashing out of a mortally wounded beast loudly dying in the corner completely reviled by everyone else. The only thing we have to fear about their bluster is the damage they can still do in the rest of December (which is considerable so this is nothing to sneeze at).

Leahy should tell repubs that if they want to delay a confirmation hearing for Holden, he'll spend the time with hearings on the Bush/republican DOJ. Their call.

Rove has led the GOP to disaster and they still listen to him.

LFI, the Clinton Justice Department was pretty miserable, the weakest of the Clinton cabinet departments, and that includes State and Defense. Why Obama would want any part of that is beyond me. It's like giving cookies to the Cookie Monster.

Well, Obama better stand up for Holden and everyone else he nominated or else he's going to get gutted by these freaks. It took Clinton years to find his stride -- I'd argue it wasn't until the Lewinsky scandal heated up that he had. We don't have that kind of time or luxury.

To his great favor however, the Republicans keep harkening back to the Clinton Era under the assumption that it was terrible — and the administration was unpopular.

So the GOP has killed off the auto industry and given around a trillion dollars to wall street (roiling over a 50 billion ponzi scheme today) so they concentrate on this sh:t to day?

Why does anyone listen to what they have to say?

This has such an air of desperation about it that I can't imagine Americans paying much (if any) attention. I mean, without a pubic hair on a pop can, what is there to create any interest?

Republicans might not be so inclined to bring up th Mark Rich issue if they were reminded a bit more often that SCOOTER LIIBY represented him for so many years.

it's not just the gop that is intent on weakening an obama administration.

there's a concerted effort by the entrenched political media to knock obama down a few pegs, too. he's sooooo uppity, afterall.

Isn't it a little odd, to plan to go after Holder on the Marc Rich pardon, when Bush is almost certain to embarrass the Republican Party, with a raft of pardons, issued in Jan?

Steve Benen wrote: "The GOP wants to weaken Obama as quickly as possible. If that means a manufactured controversy over Holder, so be it."

You know, if you would substitute "the corporate-owned media" for "the GOP" in that sentence, it would save you a lot of head-scratching over why "the press" covers things the way they do.

The corporate media and the GOP are both wholly-owned tools of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc. and serve their ruthless, relentless, rapacious class warfare against everyone else.

We are in for four to eight years of "manufactured controversies" aimed at weakening the Obama administration and thwarting their efforts to govern in the public interest rather than in the corporate interests.

America's ultra-rich oligarchy has experienced eight years of government of, by and for corporations, and they are not going to let go easily.

I would imagine it is also part of a "muddy the waters" strategy with regard to investigations of the Bush justice department.

Attacking an opponent's strength is classic Rove.

A democratic strength is the corruption of the Bush justice department, so attack the Obama & Clinton justice departments for corruption.

After Ashcroft and Gonzalez, these people really shouldn't be questioning anyone's AG nominee.

I seem to remember Glenn Greenwald writing a pretty good article about Jon Kyl and the time he lied to the Supreme Court (during the Hamdan case). It might be fun to get Kyl on the record as to whether he finds Greenwald to be reliable source.

Isn't it a little odd, to plan to go after Holder on the Marc Rich pardon, when Bush is almost certain to embarrass the Republican Party, with a raft of pardons, issued in Jan?

If they had any sense of shame or any attachment to reality, they might. However, Bush will be able to pardon his whole administration plus a dozen child rapists and Republicans will defend those actions to the death.

The Mark Rich pardon is a non-issue. At the time Clinton pardoned Rich, the Justice Department had long since quit prosecuting the offenses for which Rich was convicted. It was being treated as a civil offense.

one might think the party would be less interested in destruction and more interested in governing.

And one might be deemed irretrievably crazy if one were to even entertain the thought.

don't be impressed with the GOP's obstructionism bloc. it's all they have. they weren't elected to govern, they believe they were elected to STOP the democrats from governing. Obstructionism and the filibuster is literally their whole bag of tricks. they have no credible alternative, except to throw monkey wrenches into the works. they have no desire to build, only to sabotage. the reason it's easy to get them operating as a bloc is because none of them have any better ideas, and if they did, they know they would be cast into the wilderness for daring to think.

WHAT THE HECK... How come Rove STILL has any say with the rethugs???
I just hope he will be strung up by his HUGE balls in the new Obama administration!

Isn't it a little odd, to plan to go after Holder on the Marc Rich pardon, when Bush is almost certain to embarrass the Republican Party, with a raft of pardons, issued in Jan?

No, its pretty standard Rove fare. Attack your opponent with whatever you expect to be attacked with first, loudest, and without cessation, regardless of whether it has any merit. That way, by the time you get attacked, it just seems like your attacks are being copied, and people tune it out.