Obamacons and a Karl Rove Slap Down

I am often asked how I could ever have been a Republican. Given the current face of the demented and hate-filled base of today's GOP, it is an understandable question. However, the Party was not always dominated by people like James Dobson, John Hagee, et al. Rather Virginia's senior U.S. Senator, John Warner, former Senator John Danforth and many like them used to be the norm as opposed to the exceptions they have become in a Party that basically sold its soul to Christianists and amoral jerks like Karl Rove (who is further discussed below) who will say and do anything to win. Responsible positions, fiscal responsibility, recognition of the separation of church and state, and moderate social views once were wide spread. Unfortunately, such has not been the case for easily a decade which is why I and many moderates abandoned the party that had abandoned us.

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The trend has intensified under the noxious regime of the Chimperator and his shameful effort to undermine the U. S. Constitution. The Party's current domination by the fraudulent, hate-filled, divisive Christianists has made the decision to defect all the easier. Hence the rise of the Obamacons - conservatives who cannot stomach the Republican Party in its present form. Robert Novak - not one of my favorite people, but sometimes a good observer - has a column in today's Washington Post that looks at the Obamacons and what they may mean for the GOP. Here are some highlights:

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What is an "Obamacon?" The phrase surfaced in January to describe British conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13 the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all "conservative supporters" of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel.
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The Obamacon syndrome is based on hostility to Bush and his administration and on revulsion over today's Republican Party. The danger for McCain is that desire for a therapeutic electoral bloodbath could get out of control.

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The prototypal Obamacon may be Larry Hunter, recognized inside the Beltway as an ardent supply-sider. . . . Explaining his support for the uncompromisingly liberal Obama, Hunter blogged on June 6: "The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of 'Weekend With Bernie,' handcuffed to a corpse."

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Obamacons -- little and big -- are reason for concern by McCain. They also should cause soul-searching at the Bush White House about who made the Republican Party so difficult a place for Republicans to stay.

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In terms of Karl Rove, a/k/a "Turd Blossom" per the nitwit Chimperator (I can see the turd part but find no blossom discernible), Maureen Dowd has a great piece in the New York Times that rightly labes Mr. Rove. As always, MoDo takes him apart with wit and style. Here are some highlights:

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Karl Rove was impressed with Barack Obama when he first met him. But now he sees him as a “coolly arrogant” elitist. This was Rove’s take on Obama to Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club Monday, according to Christianne Klein of ABC News: “Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” Actually, that sounds more like W.

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Rove is trying to spin his myths, as he used to do with such devastating effect, but it won’t work this time. The absurd spectacle of rich white conservatives trying to paint Obama as a watercress sandwich with the crust cut off seems ugly and fake.

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Unlike W., Obama doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder and he doesn’t make a lot of snarky remarks. He tries to stay on a positive keel and see things from the other person’s point of view. He’s not Richie Rich, saved time and again by Daddy’s influence and Daddy’s friends, the one who got waved into Yale and Harvard and cushy business deals, who drank too much and snickered at the intellectuals and gave them snide nicknames.

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Haven’t we had enough of this hypocritical comedy of people in the elite disowning their social status for political purposes? The Bushes had to move all the way to Texas from Greenwich to make their blue blood appear more red. Rove’s mythmaking about Obama won’t fly. If he means that Obama has brains, what’s wrong with that? If he means that Obama is successful, what’s wrong with that? If he means that Obama has education and intellectual sophistication, what’s wrong with that?

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Many of Obama’s traits are the traits that people in the population aspire to. It looks as if Rove is on the verge of realizing his dream of creating a permanent position for the Republicans. Unfortunately for him, it’s in the minority.