Democratic Leadership: Their Lack of Karl Rove Proves the Need for Our Karl Rove

Democratic Leadership,

As you revel in the current apparent meltdown in the Republican Party, take some time out from the celebration and think through why this is happening at a systemic level:

Their Karl Rove is Out To Lunch.

Between health issues (he was in the hospital leading up to the Katrina disaster) and legal issues (his attention required to represent himself in the CIA leak investigation), their Karl Rove has not been acting as the "brain" of the administration full-time. And it shows.

Case in point: The Harriet Miers nomination was picked by Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Not Karl Rove.

Case in point: The first time Bush was made aware of the tragedy unfolding in New Orleans was days later, when Counselor Dan Bartlett finally got up the nerve to create a DVD compilation of the coverage of the disaster.

Case in point: Bush's latest press conference on the War on Terror was promoted poorly, received poorly, and did not advance his agenda. Shockingly, he suddenly refocused on Osama Bin Laden as our key nemesis -- the very Public Enemy #1 that he has notably not brought to justice.

Case in point: The Department of Homeland Security actually downplayed the terror warning sent to NYC regarding their subway system. Since when does the White House downplay any terror threat? Since Rove has been out to lunch.

Case in point: Bush's elementary school-quality theater production of "The President Keeping it Real with Our Soldiers," where the President conducted a little "ad hoc" Q&A with our troops in Iraq. This performance was about as real as the existence of Saddam's WMD program.

Is it troubling that the entire competence of an administration revolves around the brain of one individual? Yes. But, there is also an inherent advantage to a "top-down" strategy setting, as the prior four years have displayed. Despite the problems that this particular Karl Rove is having, the fact that having a Karl Rove did work so effectively should not be lost on Democrats.

Our Karl Rove will continue to provide Rovian advice to the Democratic Leadership until a small group of talented strategists is developed whose sole purpose is to design a single, unifying vision and plan for the Democratic party. This group should be positioned as the Democratic Senior Advisory Council, and its work products need to be consumed and reused by the Democrats of all stripes in a consistent, diligent manner.

See the Our Karl Rove post directly below to help think through how this Senior Advisory Council should strive to create a broad coalition platform designed to attract more mainstream Americans back into the party.