I guess after the inevitable right-wing freak-out about Kos being hired by Newsweek, we need a mini freak-out about their decision to hire Rove. For balance, of course:
Newsweek magazine hiring Karl Rove to be a political commentator illustrates everything that is wrong with the corporate media system. Here is a guy whose scorched earth politics have left the nation reeling with ill effects and crippling divisions and he is rewarded with a prominent mouthpiece for his vitriol from one of the nation’s most widely circulated newsweeklies? Newsweek might as well give a column on the subject of humanitarian living to Charles Manson.
Newsweek thinks it will sell magazines. Hence, they hired him. Lesson over.
Can we leave the freaking out about stuff like this to the professionals? Like, say, Red State?
*** Update ***
Speak of the devil- the GREAT ORANGE SATAN, whose attention I so crave and desire according to my former friends on the right, has his first piece up in Newsweek.
The Other Steve
The Federal Government really has it in for Ron Paul.
They’ve seized thousands of coins bearing his likeness. I don’t see what’s wrong with minting your own currency. Surely private industry can do a much better job at this than the government. That’s what the fed’s are afraid of!
As for Karl Rove. I don’t have a problem with Newsweek hiring him. I think we’ll find he’s a terrible writer. It is funny, though, that they put Kos at the same level. It’s really pissed off Malkin and the other nuts.
Zifnab
It was the Karl Rove political machine that gave us “compassionate conservative” and “Osama bin Laden: Dead Or Alive” as well as “Mission Accomplished”, “They hate us for our Freedom!”, and “You’re either with us, or you’re with the Terrorists!”
Rove is nothing if not a good butcher, ready to serve up the red meat. I have no doubt his articles will be an interesting read.
Dreggas
I am actually surprised there isn’t bitching on the left about Kos doing a column there obviously he has sold out to his corporate overlords that make him run advertisements for Chevron on dailykos and, well, he likes pie.
As for turd-blossom if he writes like he dances then it should be both amusing, and eye gougingly painful at the same time.
RSA
I expect the same. Further, I think that he’ll find that he can’t control the message as well as he may want to (imagine a Kos rebuttal following his previous week’s column, every week, along with direct attacks on his credibility), and will give up the job within three months. (I don’t imagine that it’s being set up as a head-to-head competition, at first, but I’m not sure it will be avoidable.)
Pb
The Other Steve,
Apparently that has been in the works for at least a year or so, but it’s a bit late for them to start questioning it now. Also, I’ll be interested in seeing if there’s any substance to the government’s claims relating to “money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud”–I’m sure they’ll have it all worked out a few years after the election.
Robert Johnston
Newsweek is exactly the kind of job Rove should have, a job far away from government. The world’s a better place when wannabe professional blowhards provide entertainment rather than make policy, and you can be sure Rove will be plenty–albeit unintentionally–funny to read.
Punchy
You won’t get the collective freak-out from the Left. You show know better by now. I find Rove much more appealing, more level-headed, and more insightful than other hyper-partisan, hyperactive screechers they could have culled, like Malkin or Hewitt. I think most of the Left has given up on the MSM, and instead of bitching about Rove–something we’ve come to expect–we’re just much more thankful of having Mark writing for us–something we surely would not expect.
LiberalTarian
At least they have given us a forum where every week we can write to them, and their sponsors, and have a hate-a-thon never seen the likes of on the left.
Seriously, I intend to boycott anyone within two pages of his articles; and buy anyone’s stuff who places their ads near Kos.
Fight ’em with the pocketbook. It’s the only language they understand.
Jake
This lefty will take comfort in the fact that a Librul “freak out” isn’t 1/10th as shrill or demented as what you get from the Right on a daily basis.
In fact, because the Right has set such a high freak out bar and because we are talking about Karl “Twisty Bastard” Rove, I’m having trouble recognizing this as much of a freak out at all.
More of a grumble, really.
Winter
Isn’t there some point at which basic human decency cuts into the decision making process? You know, Newsweek could sell a lot of magazines by tossing its editorial integrity out the window and just turning into a tabloid-y organization too…
Okay, okay, sorry. I’m done.
I’m actually kind of surprised though. Like, are they seriously going to pit Kos up against Rove in a battle of words? That’ll be interesting to watch…
LiberalTarian
Jake wrote:
“In fact, because the Right has set such a high freak out bar and because we are talking about Karl “Twisty Bastard” Rove, I’m having trouble recognizing this as much of a freak out at all.
More of a grumble, really.”
Actually, I think it is more of a mass upchuck.
Tim in SF
I’m the most left person I know and I don’t care if writes for Newsweek. Kos himself sanctioned the idea:
I’d rather Rove spew his wisdom in the public sphere for all to see and judge on its merits. It’s better than filling the ear of the president with poison on a daily basis.
jenniebee
I think it’s interesting in that it’s telling what serves as parity. Kos’s influence is entirely born out of his efforts to empower the grassroots. Kos is listened to on the basis of a single piece of wisdom: he saw that it would be good to give somewhat-like-minded people means to speak for themselves.
Rove is as unlike Kos as it’s possible to get. He got where he is today by hitching his star to the nogoodnik son of a patrician family with strong political networks, and his big piece of wisdom was that it doesn’t matter that you can’t fool all the people all the time, as long as you can fool enough of them in the three weeks heading into an election you’re golden.
I’m pretty happy to have those two as representatives of what it means to be “left” or “right” these days. I think we come out way ahead on this one.
trollhattan
“Keep your friends close and your turd-blossoms closer.”
Or something like that.
Herr Karl will probably not deign to write anything himself, but I suppose the more he’s in the public eye the less he’s off scurring around looking for the next dubya.
Brachiator
Me neither. Newsweek, Time and similar magazines are journalistic dinosaurs, doomed to extinction. Long ago I subscribed to both publications, finding them essential. But I haven’t bought or even thumbed through an issue of Newsweek in years, and have no interest in the online version.
I guess that Rove will find an audience among fellow pundits and Wingnuttia true believers. But, much like Dick Morris, he will inevitably degenerate into a journalistic whore, teasing readers with fake orgasmic insights based on his relations with his former tricks within the Bush Administration.
Dennis-SGMM
I’m in favor of giving more of these people columns. The more they’re exposed to the light the better.
Could you imagine an Alberto Gonzales column on legal matters? How about John Bolton on diplomacy? The more the Republicans are allowed to express themselves the greater laughingstocks they will become.
Zifnab
I think that’s how the paper plans to make money.
Zuzu
I just suspect it’s KR’s effort to rehabilitate/reinvent himself in order to establish some credibility for the next GOP reich.
Andrew
I can’t think of a magazine that sucks more than Newsweek. I’d rather read Ladies Home Journal for hard hitting politics and news reporting.
jcricket
This works for me, for a number of reasons. The fact that a political blogger, organizer and activist on the left who no one had heard of 5 years ago is now considered on par with a trusted adviser of our president and the Republican party is a great thing.
And as others have said, getting Kos in front of people who read Newsweek and the commentators about it can only be a good thing. We need more left-leaning (not faux leftists, like all the “centrists” and “concern trolls” at the DLC) people in the traditional media, as long as it’s around.
Those avenues may not be growing anymore, but they’re still pretty influential and important. The left should not ignore the reach of these new avenues.
Ninerdave
Of course you knew someone from the left was gonna freak. Who better than Rove to comment on the current state of the GOP. He is in large part responsible for where they are at now.
Tony Alva
Quite frankly, the Huff Post needs to be added to you “Blogs We Monitor and Mock As Needed”.
wasabi gasp
{{{ the sound of flipping pages in waiting rooms all across America }}}
Cindrella Ferret
You’re correct. Wha with the former Cheerleader being the son of a ex-President, AND his mother’s picture on the dollar bill. That just ain’t right!
And who the hell cares about Newsweek hiring anyone? I care about this almost as much as I care about Al Sharpton’s perm. Jesus! Know wonder suicide is at such a high rate for cops and veterans! We were risk our lives so a bunch of self-absorbed lintheaded nobodies can run around with their hair on fire over who a third rate shit rag hires as political writers. The shame and degradation of 21st century America is at hand. Goddammit! Where’s the tequila and brown acid?
Peter Johnson
Ha! Rove is a political legend, Kos is a hack. I think we’re getting the better end of this deal.
MNPundit
I think most of the Kossacks are envisioning Markos tearing him to pieces and having him be exposed as the scum he is.
ThymeZone
Tim in SF and jenniebee have it right. Bring it.
shaker o salt
Well, I’m not going to “freak out” about it but the differences between Markos and Rove are huge. For one, Markos is a decent person. Rove, not so much. ‘Nuff said.
Zifnab
See, this is why Newsweek will sell papers. Millions of ditto-head conservatives will line up around the block to read their Republican Budda lay the smack down on Big Orange Satan. And they won’t be disappointed, in much the same was that Malkin and Hewitt never disappoint their readership.
I suspect every second Wednesday will become official “Rove beat Kos AGAIN! day”, when conservatives nationwide rejoice as they are given a warm glass of milk and a Rovian bedtime story to go to sleep with.
Xenos
With luck there will be a web presence, like with Time, and cranky people can leave lots of nasty comments. It really freaked Joe Klein out until he learned to ignore it.
Dreggas
The thought of Karl Rove and the words “Whore” and “orgasmic” just made me throw up in my mouth a little…
SpotWeld
Rove vs. Kos… I’m just surprised no one has made the obvious Palipatine vs. Luke Skywaker photoshop yet.
mrmobi
That’s nice, Jenniebee! And accurate.
Jody
I am no Kossack, and I’M fondly envisioning it.
Bubblegum Tate
What makes you think he doesn’t still do this just because he doesn’t have an official title anymore?
As to Rove’s NW column…meh. Who gives a shit? He’ll recite right-wing pabulum, NW’s circ numbers will go up as wingers check it out, everybody else will roll their eyes.
Dreggas
ya know what I am loving about Kos getting the spot? He’s a young guy, he’s hip technology wise and he’s smart. He’s everything the establishment Dem party isn’t at this point. The establishment leaders are, for the most part, older “boomers” it’s nice to see someone representing me and every other “non-boomer” who have had to deal with the bullshit from the establishment for so long.
Psycheout
Did the evil Karl Rove ever say “screw them” about Americans dying in Iraq?
Dreggas
Yes he did through bush, it was called extended deployments, stop loss, over-extension, starting a war against a country based on false intelligence. Need I continue?
Zifnab
I think he said :
God, I hope we get to see some of that in Newsweek.
mrmobi
As a big fan of the Great Orange Satan, and a boomer, I concur with your analysis, Dregs.
Clearly, our leadership is in need of new blood, and we have lots of work to do in electing “new” Democrats.
Incertus (Brian)
It is the kind of thing that would cause me to cancel my subscription to Newsweek, assuming I had one to begin with, but that’s more because I think Rove belongs in jail for his role in the Plame affair, not in the pages of a national magazine. But I’m not going to have a shitfit over it because I know why Newsweek did it–they think it’ll sell magazines. I don’t expect that it actually will, beyond the initial curiosity issue.
caustics
I actually look forward to the juxtaposed opinions of Kos and Rove on vital political matters of the day…two or three years from now in the waiting room of my dentist.
I can see them being the Goofus and Gallant of the future.
numbskull
Actually, Psychout, it would be GREAT if you got Unka Karl to bring up the Blackwater killings again in his NW column. It’d be a good reminder to NW readers that Kos was right – just like the recent Baghdad killings that sparked controversy, mercenaries caused the Fallujah crisis that ended up getting a lot of Marines killed and set back our policies and initiatives.
Yep, this is gonna be fun.
gypsy howell
You’re assuming that he’s going to write the articles. Gerson maybe, or one of the other professional liars who’ve been serving up crap from the administration for the last 7 years.
Ted
Given recent tabloid-ish developments among prominent republicans, I thought Jeff Gannon would have been a better choice for the job. More representative, anyway.
I think he belongs in the poor house after being sued for the crap he pulled in S. Carolina in ’00. You know, “Would it change your vote if you knew McCain’s brown daughter came from a black prostitute?” or words giving that impression. Gotta hand it to Rove, that’s extremely effective push polling.
D-Chance.
This Kos/Rove hire is such a wonderful idea for Newsweek!
After all, look at what the idea of hiring Ann Coulter and Michael Moore did for USA Today in the last election cycle…
Dreggas
I think that’s the one thing that pisses me off about old people, especially in politics. No offense to the elder generation and I respect my elders because they are my elders. The reality is though, that they are fighting and re-fighting the battles they were fighting 20 years ago. The end result being that issues facing me, here and now, aren’t being addressed and as a result I look at them and have to say WTF? I’m 28 and the people in congress and gov’t, for the most part as old as or older than my parents, some old enough to be my grandparents.
Like I said I respect my elders and this is not to trash older people since I will be one some day but isn’t it time to let those of us living in the here and now, dealing with here and now problems lead?
Johnny Pez
Yes, the online columns do have comments. Or, at any rate, Kos’s does. Will Turdblossom dare to let the unwashed masses comment on his pontifications?
CaseyL
20 years ago, we were mostly fighting the nuclear arms buildup. Is nuclear proliferation no longer an issue?
No, seriously: what battles are you talking about, that boomers are fighting but which are irrelevant to you?
ken
I always wonder when I hear people moaning about us boomers fighting battles that are decades old. Question:
What would you have us do? Should we have waived the white flag and surrendered to the right wing cultural warriors waging on America that to roll back our hard won progress?
That would have ended the battle. And you would be living in a country with polluted air and water, with racial segregation and open discrimination, with lower wages and longer working hours, with back alley abortions and malnurished millions, with Gestapo like police brutality and Soviet style spying common throughout the land. Is that what you want?
You should be gratefull we kept fighting.
Dreggas
I meant the politicians which keep being sent to washington. But examples:
1) War on drugs – It’s a failure but will anyone stand up to the establishment on it? Nope, still locking people up for stupid shit because it’s the popular thing to do among the older generations.
2) Vietnam – Dems, those in charge and elected, are scared so shitless to actually do the right thing and put the breaks on bush because OMG they’ll live under the shadow of Vietnam
3) Candidates – John Kerry, enough said. Instead of a candidate willing to stand up, and that was pretty much any candidate, and not back down we got John Kerry. I wasn’t a Deaniac so that isn’t my gripe, my gripe is the fact that rather than having a candidate willing to ruffle a few of their “sensible” feathers we got a candidate as boring as plain toast.
4) Acting like the 50’s housewife – That’s about the only way to describe the dem congress. Sure they’ll voice an opinion but when push comes to shove they’ve shown time and again their all too willing to do whatever bush wants.
5) unwillingness to look to the younger generation – Just look at how Obama is treated “Oh he’s inexperienced”, “oh he’s young” and that’s how any younger candidate who’s under 55 is treated when they run for president, again by the establishment which is comprised mainly of older voters. The end result will be having a 60+ yr old woman who says she was a “goldwater girl” which means absolutely squat to anyone of my generation. Hell the only older candidate who seems to get it on a lot of things is Dodd.
Yes, the youth vote never seems to materialize but face it, any time we get excited about a candidate the machinations are rolled out to shut that candidate down because *gasp* he or she might not be what the “establishment” wants. So people like Dean go from being far ahead in the polls to losing states because they have the nerve to actually stand up to everyone and maybe say things not everyone wants to hear..like oh…the truth.
We get mealy mouthed candidates and mealy mouthed representation all looking at the “center” as if there is some magical peak upon which all the answers lie. Candidates with no fire in their belly that isn’t crowd tested. So, we become apathetic, wouldn’t you if your representatives were old enough to be your grandparents and treated you like someone either to be kept out of sight, or like you were a moron?
If the politicians in washington were listening to the younger generation right now the war in Iraq never would have happened (again when I refer to boomers I am referring to those elected), and things like gay marriage wouldn’t become a cudgel.
Instead we have the pelosi’s and reids who get mush mouthed and trip over their tongues on one hand promising to stand up to bush in a united manner then bowing down and kissing his ass.
But we’re supposed to just let them do that because they are older, and somehow because of that wiser.
As for fighting off the culture warriors, funny they seem to be doing all but dictating how the dems behave in congress. They’re so afraid to stand up to the wingers it’s not even funny and yet they (the elected members of government) somehow fought them off? More like they just haven’t completely capitulated. And spying…gee bush has been doing that for 6+ years and congress (including the elected democrats) have been more than willing to sign off on it, revising FISA, something that didn’t need revising. Enacting the PATRIOT Act, talk about fascist gestapo shit.
Talking about a Nuclear arms build up? Hmmm which government was it that backed out of the ABM treaty and began building an anti-missile shield leading to Russia beginning to build new nukes, then went and invaded another country demonstrating to two others named as part of an axis of evil that the only way to avoid invasion was to get nukes?
Congress, with democratic complicity, signed off on this. Stolen election in 2000 or not, they signed off on it, all of it. While it may be Bush’s shitpile the dems elected have the stink of it on them too.
Rudi
The War on Drugs is like MADD/drunk driving, local police and courts are making a ton of money on forfeitures and fines. For all these misdemeanor resulting in a county jail visit, the “criminal” has to pay for the pleasure of a stay in jail. State prisons also have similar scam, Dr Death(Jack Kevorkian) owes Michigan prisons a tidy little sum. Any book or speaking fees will be attached.
Rudi
State of Michigan – Jackson Motel
I wonder what restitution Neil Bush owes the tax payers? Will the government garnish his UAE funded software company bilking us because of NoBushieLeftBehind.
TenguPhule
John, catch up on your vocabulary.
Now that you’re a dirty fucking leftie, Kos is to be known as The Right Hand of Gord.
TenguPhule
And a hearty Fuck you too, Psycheout.
Screw the Mercs.
laneman
Dreggas.
This ain’t an age thing.
Stupid don’t hurt enough 11!!elevenone
Randolph
Rove is one of the most corrupt and corrupting figures in US politics. I think some bitching, oh, just might be in order.
Dreggas, the bastards in DC don’t represent most older people, either. Damn if I know who they represent, but it ain’t us. The other side of this is that, well, what about Al Gore? He ain’t young. He’s just not corrupt, like all the DC Republicans and half of the Democrats. Some things…it’s hard to argue against the whole “protect the children” thing, even when it’s being used to defend horrors (and the drug war is a horror.) And, damn, the US system pretty much guarantees that candidates appeal to the widest group possible, and that means that candidates are boring, and no-one gets to vote for who they want. You want an issue for the young? Fight for electoral reform.
No Blood for Hubris
Yes, it’s true, our blushing rosy-lipped milkmaid, Karl “Miss Piggy” Rove, rides again.
What’s a deathless propaganda zombie/Goebbels tulku for, if not to spread fetid evil hither and yon forever, eh?
Bring ‘im on!
Libby Spencer
I’d disagree. Kos is the new face of the establishment. He’s said himself that he’s not about ideology, he’s only about winning power. That said, I did think it was a really good first column and I hope he’ll be able to get through to the Dems that actually fighting the GOP is a winning strategy.
As for choosing Rove to balance him — I found it just hilarious. I’m still chuckling every time I think of it. I think it speaks to the emerging power of the ‘netroots’ that Newsweek felt they had to pull out the biggest gun they could find to counter Kos, a ‘mere’ blogger.
grumpy realist
Hmm. I’ve a self-proclaimed liberal and the only thing I can say is: bring on the popcorn.
I think the people who have a fit over Karl Rove’s writings are the sort of people who voted for Nader.
ATS
I confess I was confused. Michael Gerson is Orange?
A few days about after Gerson began at the WPOST, the A section ran a whole half-page article about how everyone was wondering to what degree Gerson’s new book would trun the world upside down. Then Al Kamen’s “In the Loop” told us everyone who was anyone was at Gerson’s book party in Manhattan. Since then every Gerson column in the WPOST closes with “Michael Gerson is the author of ———.”
Not a world about this from media conscience Howard Kurtz, of course.
Johnny Pez
Jen Clark is cancelling her subscription to Newsweek because she thinks Karl Rove ought to be breaking rocks in a prison rather than being paid to spout GOP talking points in a national magazine.
Does that count as liberal kvetching?
Brachiator
Well said, Dreggas!
While the GOP hopefuls offer nothing but the long night of perpetual war, most of the Democrats, with the notable exception of Obama, seem more concerned with promising their base a rehash of shopworn ideas than with attempting to appeal to a new generation of voters, or demonstrating that they have any grasp of contemporary issues. For example, national health care might be nifty to have, but it is a lot less meaningful if both the job you just lost and the job that you are training for have been outsourced. But the Democrats don’t really seem to grasp the degree to which the middle class is shrinking, and the degree to which Dubya’s tax and economic policies are accelerating this trend.
As a relative oldster who is totally frustrated with the lack of vision in the Democratic Party, I encourage your efforts to translate your excitement over your preferred candidates into electoral victory.
jcricket
Eggs-actly!
They don’t “balance” Kos with Patterico, John Trevino, Malkin, or even Coulter, but Karl “I have a nickname from the President” Rove. The “architect” of the Republican strategy for the last 10-15 years.
If that’s not a good sign for the power that Kos and the left-netroots wields, I dunno what is.
Delia
I’m not going to cancel my subscription. I’m not sure I’d get my money back. I’m just not sure if I’ll renew. I’m getting pretty bored with it anyhow.
BIRDZILLA
Why would NEWSREEK hire a conservative since their 95% lies 5% truth and 100% fabriction