Karl Rove « The Feehery Theory

Posts Tagged ‘Karl Rove’

Perry and Romney

August 19th, 2011 by John Feehery

For a lot of non-Tea Party Republicans, Rick Perry’s entrance into the Republican Primary makes Mitt Romney look a lot more attractive.

It is wrong to say that the Republican establishment wants Mitt Romney to be their Presidential candidate. First, that assumes that there is a Republican establishment that can make a decision, which I think is a vast overstatement. Second, if there were such an establishment, it is a non-evangelical elite that is simply not that comfortable with Romney’s Mormonism, and has been casting a wide-net for anybody other than Romney and Bachmann. Some had put their hopes in Pawlenty, others begged Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush to enter the race, to no avail, and now they are turning their attention to Paul Ryan, which will probably yield the same results.

At this moment, it now looks that the choice comes between Perry and Romney. Michele Bachmann, whether she knew it or not, was always a placeholder for Perry, and my guess is that she will quickly fade in the polls. Read more...

Tags: Chris Christie, Democrats, Haley Barbour, Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, Michelle Bachmann, Mitch Daniels, Mitt Romney, Obama, Paul Ryan, Politics, preseidential race, Presidential election, presidential election 2012, Republican, Republican Primary, Rick Perry, Tim Pawlenty
Posted in GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Religion, election | 3 Comments »

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

March 25th, 2011 by John Feehery

Karl Rove’s group, American Crossroads GPS, launched a new website called “Wikiaccountability,” yesterday to great fanfare.

Well, not really. The website’s purpose is pretty simple: As it says itself: “Wikicountability is a repository for Freedom of Information Act requests and other legally obtained official documents. This wiki is community contributed and community edited. The site is a project of Crossroads GPS, founded for the purpose of publicly sharing information obtained through FOIA and other important reports, documents and analyses.”

Pretty simple, huh? Help out the Fourth Estate by figuring out how the Obama Administration is stiffing them when they ask for information. After all, didn’t Mr. Obama promise more openness and transparency? Isn’t it helpful to know how they are doing when it comes to openness and transparency?

Well, the Democrats attacked American Crossroads for being non-transparent because they asked for the government to be more transparent. The New York Times, which should look at this effort with great anticipation, because the New York Times is supposed to be in the news gathering business, instead swallowed the Democratic talking points hook, line and sinker. Read more...

Tags: American Crossroads, American Crossroads GPS, Barack Obama, CREW, Democrats, Karl Rove, Melanie Sloan, New York Times, Obama Administration, Republicans, Wikiaccountability
Posted in Bad Decisions, GOP, Government, Media, Politics, Theory | No Comments »

Skunk at the Garden Party

May 19th, 2010 by John Feehery

Rand Paul / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Rand Paul’s election may very well mean the beginning of the end of the neo-conservative movement in the Republican Party. It also might mark the beginning of the end of the social conservative wing of the Republican Party.

During the nomination process of the Presidential election two years ago, I wrote about the impact of the Ron Paul insurgency and its potential impact. Paul was a fundraising sensation, and he had a cadre of committed followers who believed profoundly that the Federal Government had grown too big, had become too intrusive, had gone to war for all the wrong reasons, and was too involved in the daily lives of the American people.

Paul went after some pretty significant sacred cows in the Republican orthodoxy. He thought the Iraq War was stupid, and that our foreign policy presence in the Middle East was a big reason why we were attacked on 9/11. He thinks that the war on drugs is a waste of time, and that if people want to smoke pot, well, that is up to them. He thinks that the security apparatus of the United States makes America more of a police state and should be down-sized dramatically. Read more...

Tags: Dick Cheney, George Bush, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Kentucky, national security conservatives, neo-conservative, Primary elections, Rand Paul, Republican, Republicans, Ron Paul, social conservatives, vote
Posted in GOP, Government, Politics, Theory, election | No Comments »

John Feehery is President of Communications and Director of Government Affairs for Quinn Gillespie and Associates, Washington, D.C.'s top public affairs firm.