Rove Misstep?

The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping. Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.

Karl Rove, in my opinion, has been one of the most brilliant political strategists I've ever seen or heard of. Every move is coldly cool and calculated, it's almost as if he knows what's going to happen before it's going to happen, like a puppetmaster moving all the marionettes.

This move to line up the rank and file of the GOP just doesn't seem like a good move at all. Right now, the only leverage the Bush administration has in Washington is the good fortune of a. being in office b. Having a Republican dominated House and Senate and c. having the remnants of Tom Delay's K-Street project GOP lobbying giant machine. Bullying congressmen, especially during a time where the President already has senators like Arlen Spector scratching their heads, seems to be a recipe for backlash. Not funding dissenting Congressmen is bad for America and if anything, is going to widen the hairline cracks already forming within the GOP.

I don't know the statistics, but during this year of re-elections, it seems to be in the best interest of the Republicans to back the incumbent, especially with the balance of power beginning to teeter towards the Democrats. Democrats have been spreading the slogan "Culture of corruption" all over the Republicans. In my opinion, that's well deserved, but if the White House wants to maintain an advantage in the bodies that do the checking and balancing, it should be in their best interest to present a united front with a little honesty. Say congressmen get pissed off that Rove is basically trying to squash their pride, telling them that they are pawns in his game, tell them that they are there because of him and have no ability of their own. Say they get pissed. Who is going to get the money and the presidential backing? A porn star that loves rifles and is anti-abortion?

Then again, maybe i'm wrong. Maybe Rove really does hold everyone's political destiny in his grubby chubby hands, and maybe everyone in Washington (at least on the Republican side) knows it. The Whitehouse has everything to lose here, 6 years of political dominance and not a whole lot to show for it, why play hardball, why toy with the possibility of losing the only weapons you have?