Karl Rove lies the way normal people breathe: a purely unconscious, fundamental, physiological reflex. If he stops, he will die.

it is ALMOST a pity that the repubs are a comic book full of villains -- i say 'almost' because it is a very serious world with very serious problems requiring very serious and smart and compassionate solutions.

the Joker, the Penguin, and the Shit-Filled Soul of a Former Vice-President Bound for Hell, just aint gonna make matters any better.

Whether it suits the administration well, beyond their satisfaction with having no serious critics, is questionable. It doesnt appear to suit our society or the tenor of our public discourse or any of that other stuff Habermas and all them used to make me fall asleep trying to read. And that is very very bad.

Meanwhile the MSM or the Village or the "corporate media" or whatever you want to call those stoolies with no goolies, aren't much smarter than your average 10 year-old lad thumbing thru the comic books... and that is despairingly and stupidly tragic...

Right this moment,I'm feeling the warm fuzzies. Obama is turning out to be a much more effective civil rights killer than bumblin' Bush and his bumpkis bevy of brain boobs.

Obama is using every bit of usurped executive power to advance torture, advance domestic spying and using the burrowed Bushites across the Justice Dept and other agencies to do ever more damage to the rule of law.

Keep your eye on the issues and not the theatre because sleight of hand is the real game.

For Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove it's always going to be 1980. They don't see the hand writing on the wall. It's over. They've done it to death.

The country has moved on. They haven't, they won't. They'll spend the rest of their lives waiting for the great conservative uprising to happen.

The #2 objective of these clowns is to keep what remains of the crazy base on-board and riled up. Their #1 objective (particularly Rove and Cheney) is to avoid courtrooms. I firmly believe it really is that simple.

Or is this a good cop/bad cop set-up? First the national discourse gets bad cops Cheney, Rove and Limbaugh (and please don't forget Bachmann and Palin.) Then, some yahoo conservative--maybe Norm Coleman?--says something vaguely good coppish,--"maybe we ought to consider what we would do if global warming were something that maybe could affect our great-grandchildren " or "Is Obama really the complete anti-Christ or is he just misguided?" The media embrace him as the voice of truth and reason and use him as a mallet to bop liberals.

Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove.

Imagine the Three Stooges, and they're each trying to "out-Moe" the other two---when they're all nothing but a bunch of witless Shemps on crack....

Looks like the recent upheavel in the rethoric has dislodged Rove's rock enabeling him to crawl out and expose his toxic breath. Keep those cards and letters commin' dork-a-sauras.

Please, no more anologies to the 3 Stooges. They were welcomed comic relief for people comng out of the 30's in need of a laugh. Rove , Darth and the "bloated one" are the antithesis of comedy. More in line with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. As soon as Bishit begins to weigh in (and not to worry that'll be very soon) he'll be the foirth they need to fillout that dire picture. Nauseating...

Re: PTate's good cop / bad cop scenario

As plausible as that sounds, the GOP base won't stand for it.

During last year's campaign, friends would send me diatribes about Obama being a foreign-born Commie Anti-Christ spawned from the loins of Jane Fonda and George Soros. Almost all of it was incoherent babble -- focus-group-tested "code words" strung together to rile REAL AMERICANS® up, but not forming any vaguely cohesive argument.

Finally I started asking my friends, "All right: Obama, Clinton, etc. -- you say they're all too liberal, blah, blah, blah, yackety shmackety. Is there anybody in the GOP who is too conservative? Aside from David Duke."

I am still waiting for that name.

and that was before the Right's Centerfold, Sarah Palin, showed up and dragged the GOP even further rightward until she came this close to hosting Nuremburg rallies.

That's all that's left of the GOP, now. The party's more moderate supporters and Reagan Democrats have moved back to independent.

And anybody who steps up now and says, "Wait a minute. Do we really want to go down this path?" Gets strung up from a light pole.

What is really scary...

What really frightens me is the Republican Party's complete departure from reality. I never agreed with Republican policies, but at least they used to be logical (I just didn't agree with their assumptions). These days facts and logics seem irrelevant to them. The only thing that matters is shock value.

If we are not careful we will create a kind of '3rd world' within the U.S.: regions with low educational levels filled with people who get all of their news from Fox TV and conservative talk radio. Looking at the current actions of conservative leaders, one can only conclude that they are fighting to be the rulers of 'dum dum' land.

Oh, I do look forward to 2012 and the RepuGs imPalin' themselves.

If we are not careful we will create a kind of '3rd world' within the U.S.: regions with low educational levels filled with people who get all of their news from Fox TV and conservative talk radio.

That already happened a long time ago. It's not just people with low educational levels, though.

He's just pissed that his client, W, is the most despised man on the planet. Hell of a job Karl!

Qwerty;
If we are not careful we will create a kind of '3rd world' within the U.S.: regions with low educational levels filled with people who get all of their news from Fox TV and conservative talk radio.

That already happened a long time ago. It's not just people with low educational levels, though.

You could not be more perceptive on that situation. I have a female boss who has a masters degree and proceeded to tell me during the election that she was concerned about William Ayeres and Obama being a socialist. I went WHAAAT!!. What makes you think that.
"Well I watch Fox news because they are fair and balanced."
I said "you are joking?"
She said no - I think MSNBC and CNN are too biased toward the left.
I this "educated " woman can fall for - so can many others.

Never forget Karl Rove is a traitor. He outed an agent working for the CIA keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Part of the reason for Rove's relentless (and ridiculous) attacks on the administration is simple reflex: he's an attack dog and therefore he's doing what he knows. But a good part of it, I think, is born out of humiliation and desperation. Rove, after all, aimed to create the "permanent GOP majority" and instead turned the party into a steaming pile of wreckage. That's got to sting and he's taking his rage out as only he can. Plus, he probably holds out hope of historical redemption and knows that is kaput if Obama successfully cleans up Bush's messes. He has as much stake in an Obama failure as Limbaugh does.

Incidentally, could you get a more unappealing trio than Limbaugh, Cheney and Rove? Those three Strangelovian characters against a guy like Obama? Such an unfair fight.

Remember, Republicans live in bizarro world. To them Karl Rove represents the successes he had through 2004. To them, that he failed in 2006 meant only that they were betrayed by too many campaigns who decided not to include him and the president.

What I don't get is why newspapers think adding conservative voices will add to their subscription numbers.

Agreed with neill.

While it's entertaining to watch the GOP continue to make complete jacka55e5 out of themselves, our democracy would be much better served with a sane loyal opposition.

Mr. Benen, sometimes you make me heart go pitty pat. Agreed w/ above, though: Rove's a proven traitor, an anti-American provocateur. Sleaze is just the start of it.