Karl Rove proves he may be evil but he's not an idiot.

[kentonio]

Karl Rove, Steve King Set To Fight Bitter Battle In Iowa

As you may have heard, establishment conservative kingpin Karl Rove has launched his latest effort in electoral king-making: the Conservative Victory Project. But this is no mere project for conservative victories. As The New York Times described it, Rove's intentions are "to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles."

In short, Rove wants to avoid future, Todd Akin fiasco-type incidents -- or at least that's one way of looking at it. Of course, the more popular interpretation of Rove's new mission is that he's taking on the Tea Party, whose members might recall the zero times their movement was mentioned at the Republican National Convention during prime time.

The launch of Rove's new thingy this week coincided with the announcement that longtime incumbent Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would not seek reelection. That set off fresh speculation that Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King might go questing for higher office. From there, King ended up drawn into Rove's crosshairs as the type of Republican that the Conservative Victory Party might try to shoot down. As the Times reported:

Representative Steve King, a six-term Iowa Republican, could be among the earliest targets of the Conservative Victory Project. He said he had not decided whether he would run for the Senate, but the leaders of the project in Washington are not waiting to try to steer him away from the race.

The group’s plans, which were outlined for the first time last week in an interview with Mr. Law, call for hard-edge campaign tactics, including television advertising, against candidates whom party leaders see as unelectable and a drag on the efforts to win the Senate. Mr. Law cited Iowa as an example and said Republicans could no longer be squeamish about intervening in primary fights.

“We’re concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem,” Mr. Law said. “This is an example of candidate discipline and how it would play in a general election. All of the things he’s said are going to be hung around his neck.”

Some of those "things" that are said to be heading in a neck-ward direction include King's very Todd Akin-esque take on the female reproductive system, inflammatory slags at immigrants, and ... well, it's a vast library of cray-cray, actually.

But it's easy to see why Rove's group might horn in on the Iowa Senate race: It's shaping up to be one of those races in which the likely winner of the Republican primary doesn't poll as well against Democrats as his Republican opponents do.

In this case, we have a Public Policy Polling survey that indicates that King starts in the strongest position of any of the likely GOP entrants -- he leads likely runner-up Tom Latham by a 41 to 22 percent margin. But once you start matching those likely GOP contenders against their Democratic counterparts, it's Latham who emerges as the most viable candidate. And the rub? Well, according to PPP, Latham's competitiveness is based "partly" on the fact that he "attracts more moderate voters."

Even so, PPP found that Latham trails the top Democratic contender, Bruce Braley, by three points. (That compares to the 7- to 10-point deficit King faces in the same matchup.) Nevertheless, it's that competitive edge that could draw Rove's group into the race, the idea being that their tall dollars could lift the profile of a primary competitor like Latham and help him overcome King's popularity.

Continues at.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...p_ref=politics

Rove has to sense to know the 'We have to be more conservative' line is a train wreck waiting to happen. The real question is whether there are enough moderates left with enough fundraising power to drag the party back from the brink, or whether they need another disasterous Presidential election cycle before the penny drops across the party.

I have the feeling that the mid-terms are going to leave it open enough that it drags on until 2016. The GOP took exactly the wrong lessons from the last election, and its going to take another defeat for them to finally face up to reality. It's getting harder and harder to see where the rebound is going to come from though, considering who's left in any significant position of authority.

Anyone have any ideas about who's going to save them? Rubio has skeletons in the closet by all accounts, Ryan has all the charm of an undertakers assistant, and last years main primary field were either insane or delusional. I has hoping like hell for Huntsman, but it seems like he made the fatal mistake of becoming a figure of fun among many right wingers. Christie has gone from hero to villain (and is too northern anyway) so who's left?

[DinoDoc]

His effectiveness in the last election says otherwise wrt the not being an idiot claim.

[Imran Siddiqui]

His effectiveness in the last election says otherwise wrt the not being an idiot claim.

Aside from disputing the call for Ohio, he really didn't do much in the last election.

[DinoDoc]

Aside from disputing the call for Ohio, he really didn't do much in the last election.

American Crossroads is Rove's group isn't it?

[kentonio]

American Crossroads is Rove's group isn't it?

Was he an idiot when American Crossroads helped so much in the 2010 midterms?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apparently he's an adviser to the group. He's not on the Board of Directors.

[Dinner]

The Republican Party elite have read the writing on the wall and noticed that they don't have the numbers to win national elections. They now want to change the party platform and how it picks it's candidates so that fewer extremists get nominated which would actually be a really good thing for the party. The problem is the party has tied itself to the crazies and the crazies really hate the party elite so it will be an uphill battle.

[kentonio]

I think they were sucked in initially by the potential of having a huge grassroots movement springing up to energize the party. It's looking more and more like that was a terribly, terribly bad decision.

[PLATO]

Time for the Tea Party to go it alone? Is there any chance that a three party system might take hold? Would the Repulicans and Tea Party team up to fight the Dems or would they destroy each other? Enquiring minds want to know.....

[snoopy369]

The Tea party is just a group of internally inconsistent Libertarians. Hopefully they'd just disappear into the ether.

[Dinner]

I think they were sucked in initially by the potential of having a huge grassroots movement springing up to energize the party. It's looking more and more like that was a terribly, terribly bad decision.

Barry Goldwater called it way back in the 1960's saying tying to Republican Party to the crazy fundamentalist protestant movement with their anti-science agenda would be the death of the party. He was right. Reagan didn't seem to care about this long term problem for the party and instead just road the wave of evangelical backlash. Now the chickens have come home to roost and Goldwater has been proven essentially correct.

[Dinner]

Time for the Tea Party to go it alone?

Oh, I wish they would. That would make my day.

[kentonio]

Time for the Tea Party to go it alone? Is there any chance that a three party system might take hold? Would the Repulicans and Tea Party team up to fight the Dems or would they destroy each other? Enquiring minds want to know.....

The most likely outcome if they ever did split would be the Tea Party and the Republicans fighting it out for second place for an election with the loser collapsing. Not that it's going to happen.

[snoopy369]

The Tea Party wouldn't stand a chance vs. the Republican Party. Too many reasonable moderates out there. Either both would collapse, or (much more likely) the Tea Party would fail to get on the ballot in very many places and collapse instantly.

[kentonio]

This is truth. It would actually be a great outcome for the Republicans long term, but it's not going to happen.