Karl Rove's Plans for Lasting GOP Majority 'Fall Short'

August 14, 2007 -- Today's Washington Post takes a closer look at the legacy of Karl Rove, noting that "few people -- including his Republican allies -- believe Rove succeeded in what he set as his ultimate goal: creating a long-lasting GOP majority in the country." From working to mislead America into war in Iraq, to sticking with a stubborn stay the course strategy, to his role in smear tactics that led to the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer, to his involvement in the firing of US Attorneys for political purposes, Rove's preference for partisanship at the expense of the American people "eventually cost the party the chance to expand" and left the GOP scrambling, broken, and appealing to a rapidly shrinking slice of the American electorate.

'Architect Envisioned GOP Supremacy'

Article continues below...

"President Bush once nicknamed him 'The Architect,' heaping gratitude on his chief strategist for helping engineer two presidential victories and two cycles of congressional triumphs. But as Karl Rove resigns from the administration, a question lingers over his legacy: What, exactly, did the architect build?...[F]ew people -- including his Republican allies -- believe Rove succeeded in what he set as his ultimate goal: creating a long-lasting GOP majority in the country that could reverse the course set 70 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"'He had visions of building a long-term coalition like the New Deal coalition for the Democrats,' said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who spent two years at the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the House. 'The party right now is not moving forward. It's moving backward. The branding for the party is at a generational low.' Davis said that is due largely to the war in Iraq…

"But after easing Bush into a 'compassionate conservative' persona that appealed to the Texas electorate while he was governor and to the political center in the 2000 presidential election, Rove shifted to focus on turning out the conservative base -- a strategy that worked for Republicans for a short time but eventually cost the party the chance to expand…But by 2006, the coalition Rove cobbled together for Bush had fallen apart. Independents broke heavily for Democratic congressional candidates in the midterm elections, fueling the Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress. That shift undermined the theory Rove had been credited with turning into doctrine: that driving up your political base is more important than appealing to independents or the political center."

Source: DNC