Rove Hits White House For Thinking ‘Everything Through From A Political Perspective’

Yesterday, in a piece that has become a media and right-wing favorite, Politico’s Jonathan Martin suggested that the White House hatched the strategy framing Rush Limbaugh as the face of the Republican party.

Interviewed on Fox News yesterday, Karl Rove strongly objected to the recent focus on Limbaugh. “Is this appropriate?” Rove asked. “The idea that the White House is devoting all this time and energy and effort when we’ve got all this myriad problems facing the country.” “They’re trying to draw attention away from the things that the country wants to talk about,” he quipped. Rove criticized the White House for allegedly engaging in “old style politics” that elevates politics over policy:

ROVE: And it’s clear that this is — that this is the same old style politics that we grew to really dislike in the 1990s, when the White House thought everything through from a political perspective, road-tested it by running polls and focus groups and did everything with a very keen eye towards the politics of the matter, not what was in the best interests of the country.

How does this serve the country for us at this point when we’re discussing these big, vital things like the budget and health care and the stimulus bill and the omnibus spending bill – how does it well serve the country for this little sideshow concocted in the chief of staff’s office in the West Wing? Not very — not very useful.

Watch it:

Rove’s newly-discovered moral highground is laughable. Indeed, it was Rove concocting “side shows in the West Wing” during his time in office. Rove oversaw the politicization of nearly every aspect of Bush’s federal government, from the Justice Department to the EPA. Rove convinced President Bush to outlaw embryonic stem cell research, helping curry favor with the GOP’s evangelical base.

What was Rove up to in the 1990s? Indeed, he was involved in “old style politics that we grew to really dislike.” In a 1996 campaign for Arkansas Supreme Court, Rove printed flyers that “viciously” attacked his client’s opponent’s family. President Bush’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign, on which Rove was a top adviser, featured an infamous push poll hinting that opponent Ann Richards was a lesbian.