When Strategy Fails, Rove Will Fight Dirty

By Larisa Alexandrovna, AlterNet. Posted November 3, 2006.

Let us begin in the middle -- that is, at the center of a chess board, the most important area strategically to control in any game -- and take a bird's eye view. There is no question that all things being equal, the Democrats will utterly slaughter their opponents from one side of the nation, slashing and slicing, all the way to the other.

I am therefore amused at the Monday-night quarterbacking going on -- still -- as though with only a week left, the outcome of this upcoming election is still somehow debatable. Karl Rove -- aka Bush's colon -- might have his math, as he so arrogantly chirped recently, but the rest of the science-abiding world can still add and subtract, and it is quite obvious to anyone with the ability to dress themselves in the morning that there are simply not enough members of the hate constituency to deliver this election to the Republicans. There are not enough homophobes, bigots, and criminal braggarts left to offset the massive exodus of the recently awakened from the rotting base of the GOP.

The strategy played thus far by the RNC has been catastrophic, and all the talk of a Rove endgame surprise -- that is, a legal surprise -- is pure nonsense to anyone who understands strategy, as well as to anyone who knows that once you have lost control of the center, you are at a material disadvantage, and your opponent is positioned but a few moves from checkmate, there is absolutely nothing that can be done to salvage the game.

Then again, Rove has never been a strong chess player, or strategist even. His success comes simply from his willingness to act outside the law, an endless amount of money with which to do it, and connections that will keep him safe from legal prosecution. That is not genius, it is simply power crank. Because he is such a weak strategist, Rove tends to play the same game over and over and over. But his favored divide-aggravate-focus strategy is not working this time; it is simply far too visible, and the GOP is far too corrupt for even the most faith-based of their base.

So then why have I been in near panic for the last few weeks?

Because all things are not equal, or even barely Constitutional, and they have not been for some time now.

Distilling panic

Because I play chess, I can see that (a) the Republicans must hold the House to avoid impeachment, (b) yet because it is simply not probable that the GOP can hold the House, then (c) the game must be altered to favor the GOP in some way.

There is no question that the Republicans must keep the House, if they are to avoid criminal investigations which will no doubt land many of them in prison. More importantly, the unprecedented abuse of power by the White House cannot be allowed to be examined or investigated, because there is enough evidence to not only impeach this administration, but also to convict them of serious, criminal, even treasonous acts.

But that is not all that is at stake here, because of the unprecedented corruption, criminal activity, and outright violations of domestic and international law that include as bedfellows fascists and corporate interests. Halliburton, Exxon, and AT&T, for example, will no doubt face serious probes. Halliburton alone has been engaged in enough criminal activity to make the combined crimes of Enron, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom look like standard operating procedure in comparison.

But how?

My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right. —Dan Quayle

Since the House must be kept under GOP control at all costs, thereby assuring a safe haven for the blue chip mob, how can such a miracle be pulled off in the face of simple math?

I am obviously not speaking from a position of direct knowledge when I present what I feel are logical scenarios. This is pure speculation on my part. That said, however, I am speculating as a person who studies history, as a chess player, and as someone who understands what is really at stake here.

The only way that Republicans can fix an election watched this closely and with so much focus on vote fraud allegations -- and with good reason -- against a party that excels in suppressing the vote, is for them to have three very important control mechanisms in place and operational: numbers, media and diversion.

It's all in the numbers

Karl Rove's recent deployment of a "question the polls" edict to his minions shows that the argument is already being planted by which to minimize the shock of an impossible GOP win. But that alone is not nearly enough when real math is to be Republicanized.

Have you ever wondered why it is that the GOP will go out of its way to falsely register Democratic voters as Republican voters? The most recent example of this bizarre activity occurred in Orange County, where 12 Republican operatives have tricked Democrats into registering as Republicans. What is the point of putting so much effort and money into wrongly registering people, when in the end, regardless of party affiliation, people vote in private for whomever they choose?

See more stories tagged with: republicans, voting, election06, polling, karl rove

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