Karl Rove’s stature and influence within “movement conservatism” appears to be deflating like a punctured balloon. I say “appears to be” because he no doubt still is respected in the upper echelons of the GOP. But among the tea partiers, he is cow pie non grata.
After Tuesday’s primaries, Rove got on Faux News and slammed nominee Christine O’Donnell with the firm conviction of a man certain of his own importance. Twenty-four hours later, he was taking it back and claiming he was one of the first people to endorse O’Donnell.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. There was a time Karl could blastfax the movers and shakers of the Right that the sky was orange, and by the end of the day every right-wing media outlet and blogger would be marching behind the “sky is orange” meme. Now even Rush Limbaugh thinks Rove is too “establishment” and has betrayed conservatism.
Rove must have been chagrined when Moosewoman went after him this week. After all, he was the primary architect of the bleeped-up political culture that made her national career possible. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!
BTW, did anyone else catch the video on Real time with Bill Maher in which O’Donnell admitted to practicing witchcraft?
Ooops, Rove made the mistake of trying to be rational.
HAHAHAHA! Something he, of all people, should know, is not a smart move, even for a turd like him, in today’s shitty political atmosphere – which blossomed under him!
As for O’DOnnell, here’s what I wrote yesterday on Steve M’s blog (my apologies for repeating myself):
I have a great idea for a new network or cable TV show: “Extreme Candidate Makeover!”
The premise is simple. You follow a batshit insane conservative candidate through the primaries, as he/she bloviates on subjects they know nothing about – like the economy, the Constitution, the military, morality, sex, etc., escalating the insanity to out-crazy their opponent.
You see them win.
Now comes the good part. Prior to a debate in a few days, they bring in a staff of Republican political consultants, who have 24 to 48 hours to make this crazy person over to seem electable to someone other than the racist, sexually repressed, brain damaged, empathy challenged, angry people who show up for their parties primary.
You can follow it up to the day of the election, because on the way there, I’m sure they’ll have to do some political cover-ups, backtracking, lying and touch-ups when the candidate regresses back to alternating between foaming-at-the-mouth crazy and deer-in-the-headlights stupid.
I think it’s a winner. What do you think?
I have to mildly take issue with the phrase “O’Donnell admitted to practicing witchcraft”. Actually, it would be more accurate to say, “O’Donnell claimed to have practiced witchcraft”. This may seem like an insignificant distinction, but I’m sure anyone in the Neopagan community would understand why I think it’s an important distinction to make. In the 1980’s through to the mid-90’s there was a “Satanic panic” in the US and other parts of the world, predominantly Britain, ginned up by far right Christians such as O’Donnell that tried to claim that there was a nationwide, or possibly worldwide, organization of Satanists committing things like child sacrifices, sexual abuse of children, and all sorts of bizarre stuff. There were constant accusations that Neopagans, especially Wiccans, were a sort of front group working to draw people into this Satanic organization. At the height of the panic, even police and psychiatrists began to believe this was happening which led to quite a few cases of people being arrested, tried, and occasionally convicted on charges related to supposed Satanic ritual abuse. The most famous case was probably the McMartin preschool trial out in California. When O’Donnell talks about “practicing witchcraft” and then goes on to talk about Satanic altars covered in blood, it becomes obvious that she’s referring to all of this Satanic ritual abuse nonsense that far right Christians back then were absolutely obsessed over even though it was all completely bogus. It might seem funny now looking back at the intense paranoia and delusional nature exhibited by people like O’Donnell who claimed to have experienced these supposed Satanists first hand now that we know the whole thing was nonsense and there’s never been a shred of evidence to support any of their claims, but this stuff was very serious and had deep repercussions for people who practiced Wicca and other Neopagan religions back then. As the paranoia spread to the general public, people who practiced those religions faced a heavy onslaught of bigotry, persecution, and fear not just from far right Christians, but also the community in general including from the police, psychiatrists, judges, social workers, and other people in positions of power. It really became something of a modern day witch hunt. For that reason, I think it’s important to point out that O’Donnell is not admitting to practicing witchcraft here. Instead, she is trying to make herself seem like a first hand witness to evidence of Satanic ritual abuse, which, as we have learned, was only something that existed in the twisted imaginations of people like her and the people outside of far right Christianity that they managed to frighten enough into believing their crazy claims and accusations despite the total lack of evidence.
cundgulag – I think your candidate would win the election.
Gwiwer – Once upon a time, perfectly sane, upright, good citizen type people put a lot of ‘witches’ to death in Salem Ma. We look back in horror but we’d do it today in a nano-second if we could get away with it. Funny how plants and animals evolve but people never do, in fact I think we’re devolving.
“organization of Satanists committing things like child sacrifices, sexual abuse of children, and all sorts of bizarre stuff”
Sounds like standard operating procedure for the modern Catholic Church.
I don’t think it matters what this broad did or did not do, the dimwitted teabaggers would vote for Jeffery Dahlmer as long as he used the magical propaganda talking points of the FAUX news era republicant party, you know the drill: we want our country back, we need to return to the conservative principles of our founders, now is not the time for a tax increase, Obama is a socialist, etc. etc, blah, blah, blah……….. The democratic opponent’s best shot is to hope he can muster enough “independent votes to send her packing once again. He should concentrate on her spotty employment history, inability to manage her finances and general lack of worth while life experience (I mean she just got her BA degree a couple weeks ago twenty some years after finishing school-apparently she was couple credits short and never paid that pesky tuition bill) can you say SLACKER! Those things usually count for something, being a complete wackjob don’t seem to faze many voters anymore.
Kudos to Christine! She got the attention she was seeking at the time. Notice me, Notice me!. I doesn’t matter whether you’re dabbling in witchcraft, or dabbling in Jesus, as long as you are able to capture the attention of those around you. I don’t see Christine as being unique. I see her as being a little more persistent than most in putting herself in the public eye in order to be noticed.
The video will only serve to put a feather in her cap because it gives Jesus the victory, and all those dolts out in Beulah land will use her witchcraft testimony to reinforce their belief that Satan was defeated at the cross.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPv_S3RpIF4
I have to thank Christine for one thing: since I heard about the clip above, I’ve been humming the great old Rodgers and Hart standard “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.”
That is a great tune.
Limbaugh v Rove. It’s like watching two walruses try to kill and eat one another.
I think it’s important to point out that O’Donnell is not admitting to practicing witchcraft here. Instead, she is trying to make herself seem like a first hand witness to evidence of Satanic ritual abuse, which, as we have learned, was only something that existed in the twisted imaginations of people like her….
Gwiwer, thank you for that. It is an important distinction. Every day there are new revelations that plainly show Christine O’Donnell is deeply disturbed (and I use that description without snark).
Turd Blossom might be the primary architect of our currently screwed up political culture, but John McCain deserves some honorable mention.. He kicked the doors of political hell wide open when he brought Sarah Palin onto the national stage and ushered in the era of zero qualifications.
“he brought Sarah Palin onto the national stage and ushered in the era of zero qualifications”
Swami,
You got that right, just goes to show that decisions made in desperation always have hidden consequences. I’d bet deep down McCain must feel horrible for unleashing the madness. I guess Obama needs to shoulder some of the blame as well, had he not been so “exotic” and been kicking the old farts ass so bad McCain could have made a more reasoned pick, perhaps a more traditional Quayle like know-nothing. Unfortunately the era of zero qualifications will most likely continue and get even worse. Palin just like the teabaggers are a creation of the for profit media, they love this shit, nothing sells commercials like dysfunctional politics.
Christine O’Donnell was probably as much of a “Satanist” as the disreputable Mike Warnke. Warnke got his 15 minutes of fame publishing a book called the “Satan Seller,” in which he claimed to have been a “Satanic high priest.” Warnke was lying, because at the time he claimed to have been a “Satanic high priest,” he was actually a clean cut student at a California community college. Interestingly, it was a now defunct evangelical magazine, “Cornerstone,” that helped to expose Warnke’s lies and the stories manufactured by the sadly disturbed Laurel Rose Willson, who claimed to have been a ritual abuse survivor in a book published under a pseudonym, Lauren Stratford.
The whole Satanic panic claimed some real victims, including the McMartin family, Kelly Michaels, the Amirault family, and other people who were rushed to judgment, tried and convicted on scientifically dubious claims. There were children who broke off relationships with their families after they claimed to have “recovered memories” of abuse. It also victimized the children it claimed to protect, as many of them are now adults who believe they were subjected to abuse that never happened.
Christine O’Donnell also shares something in common with Sarah Palin and Pam Geller in addition to their respective politics, all three women are completely narcissistic and feed off the attention they get from the press.
I’m surprised that the words “pathological liar” haven’t come up more often in her campaign. According to Slacktivist, the supposed crusader for abstinence and chastity and moral rectitude is unmarried and lives with her boyfriend (in a house apparently paid for with campaign contributions, no less). It seems pretty clear to me that she doesn’t believe any of the crap she says. She makes things up to get attention. She doesn’t even try to make her lies hang together particularly well. I expect she aligned herself with the fundamentalist movement because they let her get away with it.
I made a brief journey into the occult in the early 70’s. Back then, books by a certain Lobsang Rampa(Buddhist mysticism) were circulating in my high school, followed shortly by the works of Aliester Crowley. I quickly learned the difference between Wicca, magic, and Satanism, and of course, there is NO connection between the first two and the third.Satanism actually seems rather similar to the philosophy practiced by the conservatives, especially the part about destroying your competition.
Several years later, I moved to SO. Cal, and watched in complete horror three generations of a family and their business were slowly destroyed by an over zealous DA, a ruthless, ambitious “reporter” named Wayne Satz, and his mentally challenged “girlfriend”, Kee Mc Farland. This was the infamous McMartin Preschool witch hunt. Having been exposed to the occult, I knew it was complete bullshit, but the public bought it. Remember, this happened several short years after the release of “the Exorcist”, which scared the masses stupid, ah, behold the power of Hollywood!
My opinion RE: Wicca:It is harmless, leave Wiccans alone, or one day you might wake up and find a frog looking at you in the mirror (just kidding).
I think the GOP is trying to pull it together, realizing they indeed created a Frankenstein’s monster;I still can’t believe that the likes of Rove and Libby are still running around getting press coverage, and are not in the slammer; shit like this is the spawning pond for conspiracies.
Back to “religion”, In “War at The Top Of The World”, Eric Margolis explains how Muslims view Hindus as kooks because they can’t understand how a person who seems normal can worship a monkey God, or a blue elephant.
I understand their point. Several years ago, “Pastor” John Hagee issued a decree calling “Harry Potter” demonic, and warning parents about the dangers of “Witch Craft”. So Mote it Be!
From my perspective as a non believer, I see the Rapture-ready, speaking in tongue kooks as VERY dangerous; they want the world destroyed, and have the means to do just that.They are vastly more dangerous than militant Muslims because they are here right now in great numbers, are emboldened by the current political climate and retoric, and they have the means to ascend to power.
Stephen Hawking recently said it would not be a good thing to seek contact with extra-terrestrials because they might not be friendly……….
Hmm… If I was from a highly advanced, space traveling civilization, and bumped into a planet full of killer apes, which group which I neutralize first? The Stone-throwing tribesmen of PNG, or the tribe with bases all over the planet that can’t seem to take proper care of it ?
Here’s a link to toon-town…
http://www.rense.com/general92/connr_dev.htm
O’Donnell looks to me like one of those people who will do and say anything to be noticed and to be on TV.
Eat grubs.
Flash her privates.
Be a groupie.
Me! ME!! ME!!! Notice MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Hell, she’s stupid enough – she’d scream “Theatre” in a crowded firehouse if that got her some attention.
We should be thankful she has no children to stuff in an SUV and drop in a lake. On the other hand, she may end up doing that to an entire state…
I remember seeing a woman on a TV news/opinion show several years ago who pronounced Clinton as “clit-in”, I think she was O’Donnell. Anyone else remember that?
Speaking of remembering (erinyes) in my case more like did-I-really-hear-that, I think I heard recently that O’Donnell worked for Mel Gibson during his making of the film “The Passion of Christ.” Anyone else notice that O’Donnell’s rhetoric and beliefs resemble Gibson’s?
Otherwise, if O’Donnell becomes a Senator the Senate, that (previously) arrogant, pseudo-erudite, above-reproach, august body may have its ‘cover’ blown to bits – in other words one rotten apple will end up making all the other apples also inedible.
This is going too far, c u n d gulag. I don’t like her politics or her personal ethics much either, but this is near character assassination. This is literally saying she would willfully endanger people and drown children. Sorry, I don’t see any evidence of that.