Yes, the title is sarcastic in nature. It seems that old “turd blossom” is causing Conservatives to lose their minds again.
Phyllis Schlafly and Mike Huckabee are not happy with him at all.
It seems that Rove made a very crass joke about Todd Akin, who did make a bit of an idiotic statement about rape. Anyhow, Schlafly is not happy at all, from her Eagle Forum blog:
Karl Rove has made himself toxic to Republicans by his incredibly offensive and dangerous statement suggesting the murder of Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri. Any candidate or network who hires Rove will now be tarnished with this most malicious remark ever made in Republican politics.
Just imagine if someone had made that statement about Barack Obama. The Secret Service would go on Red Alert and you can bet that the author of that remark would be in jail by now. As quoted by a Businessweek reporter and now on the internet, Rove in Tampa told some 70 big donors to his Super PAC, American Crossroads, that every attendee should apply pressure to “sink Todd Akin” and force him out of the Senate race for which Missourians had nominated him. Then Rove said that if Akin were “found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts.”
This stunning attack on Akin is now reported as a joke. Sorry, Karl, it isn’t funny to joke about murdering a Congressman.
Rove has disliked Akin ever since Akin was one of the principled members of the U.S. House who voted against George W. Bush’s extravagant expansion of Medicare when the vote was called at 5:53 am in November 2003. Akin is a man of principle who doesn’t cave in to political pressure, so he’s not Rove’s kind of politician.
Rove tried to excuse his obscene joke by saying he would not have said it if he had known a reporter was in the room. That makes his statement worse! Is murder the kind of secret political advice Rove gives to Republican donors and candidates who hire him?
A private phone call by Rove to Akin to sort of apologize does not erase the public offense. At the very least Rove should make a public apology. But even that can’t wipe out his gross political mistake.
Karl Rove is an embarrassment to the Republican Party. We don’t want any more of his advice in secret briefings or publicly on Fox News. Missourians don’t want politicians from other states telling us who to run for the Senate.
Ouch. Now before any dismisses her as some angry old bitty, Schlafly happens to be one the very “old school” Pre-Reagan-era Conservatives. She goes back to the Barry Goldwater era and she does carry some influence in the Republican Party.
Even Mike Huckabee was not to happy with it either, while not as harsh as Schlafly, he also spoke out against Rove’s remarks:
If making a foolish remark about rape is bad, then making a joke about a United States Congressman being murdered is as bad or worse since Akin didn’t wish anyone to be raped, just spoke awkwardly and incorrectly about the likelihood of pregnancy in the event of a rape. In light of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the remark was disturbing.
[…]
….Todd erred, apologized, and we need to help him win, not convince ourselves he can’t. Karl erred, apologized, and we need to treat him in the way we want Todd Akin to be treated. If Todd is continued to be alienated and Karl doesn’t suffer the same fate, then I will encourage all the activists I can to spend all their time, money, and effort in Missouri. If the party doesn’t want us, then I guess they don’t need us. Akin will. Janet and I are sending him the maximum we can under federal law.
To me, there is nothing more awesome, than watching the Conservative grassroots stand up to the Republican Party establishment. Especially, people like Karl Rove; who is the perfect example of what was wrong with the Republican Party between 2000 and 2008. The sad thing is, that there are indications that the Republican Party might be making the same mistakes again. I would hope that this would not be the case; but it does look that way.
I will say this, if the Republican Party and Mitt Romney do go the way of big Government Conservatism again; this blogger will be there, fighting them every step of the way. I will write about it here on this blog. I will not let them get away with it, you can count on that.