Karl Rove: Eventually, GOP must supply answers

By Michael Mishak

Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Karl Rove got a standing ovation from Nevada conservatives last week as he ascended the stage at a posh fundraising dinner for the Nevada Policy Research Institute.

Introduced as a “visionary for public policy,” the former White House adviser tried to live up to the billing, arguing that President Barack Obama’s health care plan had provided conservatives with an opening for a political comeback — but that Republicans need to offer an appealing alternative to capitalize on the opportunity.

After all, Rove said, “there is no gigantic demand for the kind of radical change (Obama’s) promising.”

The crowd ate it up.

Yet Rove proves an unlikely leader to return Republicans from the political wilderness, given that his brand of steamroller politics put the party there in the first place. His scorched-earth approach to campaigning — and governing — set the stage for Obama’s presidency and the Democrats’ return.

When Obama pledged during the campaign to deliver a new kind of politics, he was making direct reference to the divisive strategies Rove pursued in the Bush years.

To be sure, Rove is one of the most celebrated political strategists in American history, inspiring tomes on his strategic genius such as “One Party Country” and “The Way to Win.” He was the primary architect of George W. Bush’s campaigns and helped return Republicans to the majority in Congress in 2002.

But the tide turned shortly after Bush’s reelection. With an eye toward a permanent Republican majority, Rove pushed Social Security privatization and health-care savings accounts, policies that had little public support. Bush toured the country attempting to sell those programs at a time when a majority of Americans were concerned with the worsening war in Iraq.

In 2006 voters responded by returning Congress to the Democrats, who built on those gains two years later and retook the White House. Republicans lost ground with women, Latinos, young people and independents, making the party more white, conservative and regional.

If Rove has divined any political lessons from those blistering defeats, it wasn’t clear from his speech last week.

In fact, he said the thing he most regrets from his time in the White House is failing to respond aggressively to charges by Democratic leaders that Bush had lied about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction.

“We should have stood up and taken a two-by-four to them in a polite and respectful fashion,” he said.

The country, he said, is still center-right. Obama won the presidency because he campaigned as a centrist, only to take office and govern as a liberal, Rove said.

He called the ongoing debate among Republicans about whether the party should return to its roots or chart a new course “sterile, artificial and unnecessary.”

His solution: “We can draw on our timeless principles and apply them to the new circumstances we face as a country.”

On health care, he revived a long-standing favorite: health-care savings accounts. In addition, he advocated tax credits, interstate competition in the health insurance market and tort reform to protect doctors from medical malpractice lawsuits.

“We’ll be defined this year by what we oppose, and we’re opposed to Obamacare,” Rove said. “But by next year, we need to be able to articulate what it is we’re for, because there is a problem — some people are not getting health insurance and can’t afford it.”

According to public opinion polling, the political landscape, favorable to Democrats in the past two election cycles, is shifting. Independents, who were critical to Democratic gains, are moving to the Republican Party. Notably, that defection seems to have less to do with Republican ideas than it does with general discontent with Congress.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Democrats are still widely seen as the party best able to bring about the kinds of changes the country needs. They are also seen as better equipped to deal with most major policy issues, including health care.

Rove clearly disagrees.

Voters will ultimately decide if more of the same from Republicans is enough.