September 16, 2004
SHE'S ROVE'S GREATEST TRICK:
Pre-emptive Paranoia (MAUREEN DOWD, 9/16/04, NY Times)
Here's how bad off the Democrats are: They're cowering behind closed doors, whispering that if it should ever turn out that Republicans are behind this, it would be so exquisitely Machiavellian, so beyond what Democrats are capable of, they should just fold and concede the election now - before the Republicans have to go to the trouble of stealing it again.There's no evidence - it's just a preposterous, paranoid fantasy at this point. But it speaks to the jitters of the Democrats that they're consumed with speculation about whether Karl Rove, the master of dirty tricks and surrogate sleaze, could have set up CBS in a diabolical pre-emptive strike to undermine damaging revelations about Bush 43's privileged status and vanishing act in the National Guard, and his odd refusal to take his required physical when ordered.
In this vast left-wing conspiracy theory, Mr. Rove takes real evidence on W.'s shirking and transfers it to documents doomed to be exposed as phony (thereby undermining the real goods), then funnels it through third parties to Dan Rather, Bush 41's nemesis on Iran-contra. A perfect bank shot.
Great nations ought not put paranoiacs in charge of government. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 16, 2004 11:11 AM
Or any other consequential post. Harvard? CBS? NYT?
Posted by: luciferous at September 16, 2004 11:38 AMAlone in his meditation chamber Sith Lord Darth Rove bows before an holographic image of Emperor Bush:
Bush: There is a disturbance in the polls.
Rove: I have felt it my master.
Bush: It is the old Rather. You must destroy him.
Rove: If he could be turned to the Republican side, he could be a valuable dupe, er... powerful ally.
Bush: Can you do this?
Rove: He will join us or be cancelled!
Later on a wind swept cat walk, after a light saber slices off both hand and microphone...
Rather: I'll never join you! Obi Wan Kerry warned me about you.
Rove: Obi Wan Kerry didn't tell you everything.
Rather: He told me enough. He said you ruined my source.
Rove: I AM YOUR SOURCE!
Rather: Noooooooo !!!!!
Dan - good one.
I think most people will apply Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually the correct one) to this - some anti-Bush people tried to plant a story and got caught. Note that without the blogosphere catching this it probably would have worked (like many others probably have in the past). The remaining question is whether it is connected to the DNC or Kerry or by person(s) acting outside these two groups.
Ha! Very funny, Dan.
Posted by: H.D. Miller at September 16, 2004 12:27 PMOkay, if a sizable number of Democrats are actually thinking that this is a diabolical, yet comically complex Republican plot, then we need to get the Lithium blasted down their throats by the gallon.
"Hey, Pierre! We've got another one!"
"That's the twelfth one today."
"But I am Napoleon!"
"Suuure you are."
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that Karl isn't out to get you. He hasn't denied it so it must be true, at least under the CBS standard for evidence.
Posted by: Jeff at September 16, 2004 12:32 PMkarl rove for director of intelligence since he is so 'evil' and the all knowing all seeing eye.
Posted by: patrick at September 16, 2004 12:40 PMI always saw Rove as Sauron and Bush as Sarumon. Myself, I'm just a humble Orc, happy to serve evil as best I can.
Posted by: Governor Breck at September 16, 2004 12:41 PM"Two men say they are Jesus. One of them must be wrong."
The idea begets a malevolent smile from me. Further, if he did and was caught, what could they do about it? NADA! Just too sweet to contemplate.
Posted by: genecis at September 16, 2004 12:55 PMIf Karl Rove actually did that--he didn't, but let's pretend 'cause it's fun--if he actually pulled off an op like that, it's the best of all possible arguments for re-electing President Bush. If there's anyone about who's that devious, and that good at black operations, I want him running the CIA!
Posted by: Mike Morley at September 16, 2004 1:17 PMForget Sauron and Saruman: with all the heavy breathing going on, Karl Rove might as well be Morgoth.
Posted by: ratbert at September 16, 2004 1:27 PMThe Democrats sound just like the Arabs blaiming 9/11 on the Israelis because no Arab could execute an operation that clever.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 16, 2004 2:23 PM>The remaining question is whether it is
>connected to the DNC or Kerry or by person(s)
>acting outside these two groups.
Given the professionalism of the forgery, I'd say the latter. You'd think a Party Dirty Tricks team would be better than some script kiddie using all the Word default settings.
My guess is, you got a pathological Bush-hater crank (like this Burkett guy who's being named in a lot of blogs) who whips this up off-the-cuff and gets CBS and other pathological Bush-bashers to fall for it because it fits their preconceptions so well. CBS & Rather fell for an amateur con job, but can't admit they've been had (another sign of an easy mark).
"I think most people will apply Occam's Razor to this - some anti-Bush people tried to plant a story and got caught."
I have a different attitude: I don't know where the memo came from and *I don't care.* The important story is that CBS ran with evidence so obviously bogus.
Posted by: ralph phelan at September 16, 2004 4:14 PMA good con depends on the mark being so embarassed about falling for it that they won't call the authorities or otherwise do anything to expose their gullibiliity. This episode fits perfectly.
Remember the debate practice tape that Gore got in 2000? This document story sounds similiar....
It feels like this forged document story....
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/18/172901
"The debate materials were sent to Downey by a mysterious "Amy Smith" from a fictional address in Austin, Texas – home base for the GOP campaign – and contained a videotape of Texas Gov. George W. Bush practicing for the debates and a briefing book.
The Bush campaign subsequently said only the GOP candidate's inner circle should have had access to the materials. "
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/010501/tex_advisers.shtml
The lengthiest testimony, about 90 minutes, came from Bush media consultant Mark McKinnon. His one-time employee, Juanita Yvette Lozano, 30, is the focus of the FBI investigation into the mailing.