Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Stay strong, because they are weak.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Everybody saw this coming.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

You are here: Home / Late Night Open Thread: Shall We Play the Wild Rove-r?…

Late Night Open Thread: Shall We Play the Wild Rove-r?…

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I feel so special. The following e-mail just appeared in my Balloon Juice in-box:

Ambassador Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson have asked that I send you their official statement regarding Karl Rove’s new memoir “Courage and Consequence”:
__
Karl Rove’s book “Courage and Consequence” is less memoir than hoax. The chapters that relate to the CIA leak scandal are yet another attempt to deflect attention from his central role in the betrayal of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity as a covert CIA officer. His distortions and fabrications are consistent with his approach throughout this sordid and criminal affair. Wasting his opportunity to tell the truth, he offers absolutely nothing new, and his selective use of facts and quotes are a transparent effort to continue his long campaign to confuse people, unfortunately consistent with his past behavior. His book is a pathetically weak defense of the disastrous policies pursued by the Bush administration, involving our country in a war of choice based on false intelligence and badly tarnishing the good name of the United States of America. Nothing in Karl Rove’s book refutes those facts. His book, however, is illuminating in further exposing his political methods, especially his reliance on personal insults, not simply towards Valerie and myself, but also towards all those who opposed his unprincipled behavior. If any additional proof to the irrefutable historical record were needed, Rove’s book demonstrates once again the actions of a vindictive, angry and petty man. Karl Rove betrayed his nation; now he has betrayed history.__
__
Justyn Winner, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Winner & Associates, A Publicis Consultants Company

In the press of current events, I had actually forgotten that Karl Rove had a book coming out. And none of the political blogs or online traditional media sources mentioned its debut sufficiently to draw my attention, either; the literary stylings of ‘Bush’s Brain’ drew fewer pixels than Erick Erickson’s latest attempt to increase his affiliate income by urging his readers to mail tchotchkes to yet another insufficiently-insane conservative. I went to the book’s Amazon page, and there are a mere six 5-star and six 1-star reviews — how many had Sarah Palin’s tome drawn by its official publication date?

Of course, Rove’s publicists chose not to take advantage of Amazon’s “read an excerpt” feature, so all I can state from existing public record is that every single word of the title Courage & Consequence: My Life As a Conservative in the Fight is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’. (In fact, Rove may have outdone Hellman by perpetrating additional lies in the sequencing as well as the meaning of the words used.) Nor do I plan to spend my precious dollars, time, and brain cells on obtaining or reading it… unless someone offers me at least three figures up front and a free review copy, preferrably autographed, because performing disgusting acts for money is the spirit of Republicanism as I understand it.

One can but hope that Mr. Rove is chastened, even saddened, by the tepid public reaction to his meme-oirs. And I assume that the Wilsons’ statement should be taken to mean “Weep all you like, Turdblossom — the civil suit stays in the docket.”

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    asiangrrlMN

    Thanks for the shiny new thread, Anne Laurie! Woot woot! As for Rove, feh. The less said, the better. I’m glad that his memoir is garnering a collective yawn.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: And a long-anticipated divorce. Of course Karl’s on wingnut welfare so Uncle Rupert is backing him up no matter what so the exercise is pretty much pointless. The whitewashing of the Shrub continueth.

  3. 3.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Valeria Plame Wilson is an undercover CIA operative. And, by the way, I wear a cape.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Brick Oven Bill: Isn’t it past your sleepytime? Now unpin your blankie from your shoulders and go to bed.

  11. 11.

    Comrade Kevin

    For some reason, I have the feeling that BoB wears a “snuggie”, especially when he’s watching cinemax.

  12. 12.

    YellowJournalism

    Wouldn’t it be cool if Karl Rove went on The Daily Show to promote his book?

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    And, by the way, I wear a cape.

    I’m sure it goes well with your Captain America Underoos. Now put down your George Bush flightsuit doll action figure, get your jammies on, and head to bed, sweetie. Make sure to have a potty break before your brush your teeth. Wouldn’t want you to wet the bed.

  13. 13.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Kevin: I used to be of the snuggie mocking sort, until my co-worker came in with a homemade one that looked rather plush and comfy. The real lesson here is find someone who sews and get them a snuggie pattern (my SIL has one) or else they’re crap.

    @YellowJournalism: Wouldn’t it be cool if Karl Rove went on The Daily Show to promote his book?

    That would be a bloodbath, although I think Rove might just be foolish enough to go on Colbert to up his conservative street cred. Now THAT would be a slaughter. (edited to fix word repetition)

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: OH that. Just putting in the @ then editing after that. I’m sure there’s a more elegant method of doing it than I’m using I just don’t know how.

  18. 18.

    asiangrrlMN

    OK. I just have to say this.

    His book, however, is illuminating in further exposing his political methods, especially his reliance on personal insults, not simply towards Valerie and myself, but also towards all those who opposed his unprincipled behavior.

    It’s “Valerie and me“, Joe. Grrrrr.

  19. 19.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Breathe dear, breathe. It’s just one small grammar mistake, it doesn’t throw off his whole argument. It’s okay, I’ll bake you some cookies to soothe it all over.

    Speaking of which, check your e-mail not tonight (cause I’m too tired and emotional right now) but in the morning, I’m gonna send you a shoulder tap.

  20. 20.

    Mike Kay

    As someone once said, Rove and Cheney and Neo-Cons are too ugly to attract support(even among the base) to ever get elected, so they find mindless puppets they can control, like Bush and Palin.

  21. 21.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Oh, I know. It’s just one of my grammatical pet peeves.

    Sleep, hon. Get some sleep. I hear it makes some people feel better. Will wait with bated breath for said email.

  23. 23.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Sorry my righteous hackles got brushed one thread down. I’ve said my piece there, I’m going to bed now and sleeping off the night.

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think I was just spanked. Ask me later whether I enjoyed it.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @asiangrrlMN: Never you mind that ole Yutsano. I’m with you on the misuse of “myself,” which is merely the grammatically agnostic coward’s way out of the dreaded “I” or “me” decision. (But Yuts is right that it doesn’t invalidate JW’s entire argument.)

    /grammar PITA

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    The only time I want to see Karl Rove’s name in the news is as an obituary. Unless a laser guided frozen turkey is involved, then the headline page is justified.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    Valeria Plame Wilson is an undercover CIA operative. And, by the way, I wear a cape.

    And both were things we didn’t need to know.

  29. 29.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Anyone who’s ever doubted that Christopher Hitchens is a relatively intelligent person who’s been made into a blind, raving lunatic by his Neocon Iraq war support should look at what he wrote in 2006 about the Wilson/Plame affair.

    According to Hitchens, Novak had appeared on Meet the Press and “…dissolved any remaining doubt about the mad theory that the Bush administration “outed” Ms. Valerie Plame”.

    Hitchens then lists the reasons:

    2. He was never told the name Plame but discovered it from Who’s Who in America, which contained it in Joseph Wilson’s entry.

    And I’m absolutely certain, right there in Who’s Who In America, it said “Valerie Wilson, formerly Plame. Currently undercover CIA agent”.

    Or as one the best and funniest rants online, ever, put it:

    Despite your breathless and unending discoveries to the contrary… Joseph Wilson having a wife named Valerie Plame is NOT a classified secret of the United States.

    Read it all, it’s immensely satisfying.

  31. 31.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Mike Kay: Yes I know about Hitchens reputation but in that case he must have been too drunk to know what he was writing many, many times, because as he points out here he’s stood behind everything he wrote about it for years now.

    Not saying he wasn’t drunk, just saying that he also believes it. Which is– astonishing.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    One can but hope that Mr. Rove is chastened, even saddened, by the tepid public reaction to his meme-oirs.

    I guess the blossom is off the turd.

  34. 34.

    HeartlandLiberal

    FWIW, I found it satisfying to post Winner’s comments on Rove’s pack of lies as a comment with one star in the Amazon reviews for the book.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    Karl Rove is extraordinarily loathsome because he has not reaped the riches of Cheney, or the power of Bush, or the notoriety of Woo.

    He must have done it because he liked it. And that’s really icky.

  37. 37.

    Glen Tomkins

    The profit motive

    Of course the Wilson/Plame people are flogging Rove’s book. It doesn’t do any good to win a big judgment if the defendant doesn’t have the money to pay it.

  38. 38.

    Linda Featheringill

    Good morning, folks.

    Another day, another helping of Dick Cheyne. Ugh.

    I agree with you Anne – Dick has the right to produce books and we have the right to ignore them. Aside from the fact that I don’t want to part with my hard-earned coins, I really don’t want to clutter up my brain with his nonsense.

  39. 39.

    rachel

    Ah, Karl Rove. Winner in the “Republican that Most Resembles a Garden Slug” category. I’d like to see the heavens open and rain pickling salt down on him.

  41. 41.

    jeffreyw

    Bah, another hawk-less day. Reduced to artsy studies of starlings and woodpeckers. Yes, I’ll have more coffee, please and thank you.

  42. 42.

    r€nato

    Thomas Ricks was on NPR last week and he was asked about Rove’s comment in his book, that the Bush regime might have reconsidered their drive to go to war with Iraq if credible information had been found to prove there were no WMDs.

    Ricks’ response? “I wanted to puke.”

    Ricks is no partisan but he’s seen enough of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that he has no patience with liars and their deadly lies.

  43. 43.

    Linda Featheringill

    To Jeffreyw:

    I still have your hawk on my desktop. He looks cool.

    I was looking at the woods in your photo and trying to guess where you live. Allegheny Mountains, more or less?

  44. 44.

    Snarky Pickles

    And unlike Sarah Palin, Turdblossom doesn’t have well-funded political operations (the RNC, SarahPAC) to buy his book by the truckload at wholesale prices, to hand out as tchotchkes to donors, that will drive up his bestseller stats.

  47. 47.

    nevsky42

    I’m reminded of when Triumph the Insult Comic Dog visited the Repub National Convention:

    “Ah, so you are ‘Bush’s brain’. I was expecting a much smaller man.”

  49. 49.

    mr. whipple

    @Clark:

    “Uh-oh. It looks like Obama’s going to take away the public’s “right to fish“.”

    Oh brother. I guess since Obama never came to take guns and ammo, they need to whip up a new paranoia.

  51. 51.

    Chyron HR

    @Clark:

    Uh-oh. It looks like Obama’s going to take away the public’s “right to fish“.

    Ha! Now they’re putting fake crazy comments on their fake crazy articles! The Onion’s still got it!

  58. 58.

    Clark

    @mr. whipple:

    My thoughts exactly! And you have to love the constant United Nations references in the article, as if black helicopters will be garrisoning the coasts of lakes around the US to make sure that people don’t fish there.

  60. 60.

    timb

    Uh, guys, that lawsuit never had a chance, although in a just world it would have. Conservative courts have been restricting your right to sue government officials for malfeasance for years. Plame’s suit went away over a year ago.

  65. 65.

    Reddalestew

    Perhaps a better title would have been Scourge and Prevarication: My Life on a Turd.

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