Neal Gabler writes: "This election is about Rovism -- the insinuation of Rove's electoral tactics into the conduct of the presidency and the fabric of the government. It's not an overstatement to say that on Nov. 2, the fate of traditional American democracy will hang in the balance... Bush entered office promising to be a 'uniter, not a divider.' But Rovism is not about uniting. What Rove quickly grasped is that it's easier and more efficacious to exploit the cultural and social divide than to look for common ground. No recent administration has as eagerly played wedge issues -- gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research, faith-based initiatives -- to keep the nation roiling, in the pure Rovian belief that the president's conservative supporters will always be angrier and more energized than his opponents. Division, then, is not a side effect of policy; in Rovism, it is the purpose of policy."

A month ago, Norman Solomon predicted Karl Rove would pull something totally loathesome before Nov. 2: "[Karl] Rove is more than a master manipulator of the news media. He's a stealthy smear artist who does whatever he can get away with. The Swift Boat uproar that erupted in mid-August was vintage Rove. Now, it's a safe bet that the two months between the end of the 2004 Republican National Convention and Election Day will be the nastiest stretch drive in modern presidential politics. The evidence is strong that Rove bugged his own office at a key moment in the 1986 gubernatorial campaign and then spun the Texas media to point the finger at Gov. White." So now we have a "report" that three Bush campaign laptops were stolen in Seattle, with Repug claims the Kerry people did it, even before the police have a chance to investigate! Sniff. sniff....do you smell a Rove?

Although the meat of this story is, of course, that Karl Rove and Swift Boat Fraud mastermind Bob Perry have been colluding in dirty politics for nearly three decades, beginning in Texas in 1978, it is also interesting for the insight it gives into the character of Bush's 'top goon' (Rove). The man insultingly known as 'Bush brain' has been hiding behind other people, using other people to manipulate yet other people to power since he was in college. In short, his sad, destructive existence has consisted of crawling from one "hideout" from life to another to another, playing out vindictive fantasies of power and revenge through other people. Rove's personality seems to match descriptions of "magic mirror" borderline personality disorder syndromes where the subject, often damaged by a critical, cold father, lives obsessively thru another, often becoming abusive and highly manipulative to perpetuate his control and power fantasies.

Karl Rove is a man who will stoop to any new low of deceit or manipulation to drag someone else's good name through the mud. He is behind most of the Kerry smears. Yet when it is pointed out that his attacks on Kerry's service record (thru the Swift Boat frauds) is just a wee bit hypocritical in light of the fact that he, himself is a three-time draft dodger, Rove starts sniveling. As ever, he never fights his own battles - he hides behind someone else. Now he's using Olympus High School classmate Mark Gustavson, to speak for him (probably the only person left who will!): "Anyone that says that Karl's tactic was to play the hawk, but avoid the service" is slandering his name," whines Gustavson, somehow missing the glaring fact that Rove DID avoid the draft and Rove DOES play the hawk.

Is Maureen Dowd ridiculing the idea that the White House could be behind the "suspect memos" leaked to Dan Rather - or making a convincing case for it? "Those who suspect Rove note that when he was Bill Clements' campaign strategist in a 1986 governor's race in Texas, he was accused of bugging his own office to distract from a debate, according to James Moore and Wayne Slater, authors of 'Bush's Brain.' They said it turned the election because after that, the Democrat could not get any attention. Was the same scenario playing out Wed evening on CNN? After a five-minute report on the CBS memo... CNN spent about 30 seconds reporting that two more Marines had been killed in Iraq."

We bet Karl Rove couldn't wait to get rid of Bush this week. Tied up by the convention, with all media focused on his smirking face, Bush has left the White House under control of the sociopathical Karl "Balloon-face McGoon' Rove, chief thug. We can just see Balloon-face playing "king" in the Oval Office, kickin' back in the leather chair as he shoots off "edicts" like the one barring UK Tory leader Michael Howard from the White House and now this one, in which he proclaims the US will conduct the war on terrorism the tyrannical way the British mis-ran their war against Ireland's separatists. Guess Rove figures by mimicking the Brits he can mimick their outcome: the continuance of a bloody quagmire for 100 years or so. Bush better watch out! Rove may not want to give up the Oval Office next week!

Jim Moore writes, "The Swift Boat Veterans for Lies is but a tiny piece of a schematic Rove has been carrying in his head since his salad days in Texas. Bush's Brain will die happy the day he achieves his two greatest goals. The first of these is to turn the U.S. into what is fundamentally a one-party system. Secondly, he wants the federal government to have so little money that it can do nothing to get in the way of business interests; nor will it be able to sustain any kind of socially progressive assistance for disadvantaged Americans. His desire to destroy the Democratic Party is not about fair play politics. Rove sees a country where there is only symbolic opposition and democracy is more of a 'Potemkin Village' show than an actually tallying of votes and a discussion of issues. He and the Republicans believe they know what is best for America. They do not consider ideas from the left or the center. Those people are simply wrong to them."

There is no question at all now who really runs the White House - and it isn't George 'Puppetman' Bush. The Independent reports "Michael Howard last night accused George Bush of seeking to protect Tony Blair in an extraordinary row sparked by news that the Tory leader has been banned from the White House.Mr Howard hit back after it emerged that his calls for Mr Blair to stand down over the Iraq war have enraged the US President. The simmering feud was laid bare yesterday as it emerged that Karl Rove, Mr Bush's most powerful official, told the Tory leader that he "could forget about meeting the President". Mr Howard last night launched an unprecedented attack on Mr Bush. "If some people in the White House, in their desire to protect Mr Blair, think I am too tough on Mr Blair or too critical of him, they are entitled to their opinion. But I shall continue to do my job as I see fit," he said."

Have you ever noticed how Bush surrounds himself with people (Scott McClellan, Michael Powell, Karl Rove, et al.) sporting round, vapid faces, multiple chins (or no chin) and mean little piggy eyes - the sort of alternately sneering and simplering face that screams "I have no character!?" Well the top thug amongst these clones is Karl 'Balloon-face McGoon' Rove. If ever anyone epitomized the sneaky, oily, smug sort of whiny troublemaker most of us have known and hated in elementary school and junior high, then Balloon-face is it! Now here at Salon.com is all you never really wanted to know about Balloon-face and would probably never have asked.

As long as the "brains" of the Bush operation belong to Karl Rove, why should Democrats worry? Hand the chief thug we like to call "Balloon-Face McGoon" enough rope and he'll hang himself, his boss, and probably everyone else connected to the Bush Gang. The latest "brain fart" traceable to "Balloon-face" - the sordid, cowardly Swift Boat smear job - probably will pull at least one of the remaining legs out from under the Bush "throne." His next "job for the boss" - trying to rig a riot or at least a skirmish or two in NYC and pin it on Kerry supporters - is likely to be exposed before it gets out of the gate. BTW - does anyone know who recommended this clown to Bush in the first place? We'd like to shake his hand! Buy the book _Bush's Brain_ about the Bush/Rove relationship and other great books at Democrats.com: http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=84

Jim Moore tells BuzzFlash, "The truth is that people get their information for their political decisions precisely the way Karl says they do -- from images. That's why one of the big images in the first go-round was George W. Bush on that aircraft carrier. And it's why he plays this game. As you may recall from the first book, in an interview he said, 'Run your campaign as if people are watching television with the sound turned down.' And that's what they do. And if somebody walking past their television sees Max Cleland on camera morphing into Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, they're going to remember that. And they're not going to be angry about that happening. They're just going to remember that imagery, and they're going to go: Ah, I can't vote for that guy. Somehow, some way, he must be associated with Osama. And it's working. It's working to our detriment and their positive effect."

"Several hundred people stormed the small yard of Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants. Protesters poured out of one school bus after another, piercing an otherwise quiet, peaceful Sunday in Rove's Palisades neighborhood in Northwest, chanting, 'Karl, Karl, come on out! See what the DREAM Act is all about!' Rove obliged their first request and opened his door long enough to say, 'Get off my property.'... At one point, Rove rushed to a window, pointed a finger and yelled something inaudible. Shortly thereafter, sirens shot through the neighborhood and Secret Service agents and D.C. police joined the crowd on the lawn. Rove opened his door long enough to talk to an officer, and the crowd serenaded them with a stanza of 'America the Beautiful.' "

Wayne Madsen writes, "Democrats, progressives and the liberally inclined must learn to fight fire with fire, Rove tactics against Rove tactics. This evil practitioner of political chicanery earned his stripes first as an apprentice of Richard Nixon's dirty trickster, Donald Segretti. Rove then went on to hone and refine his duplicitous craft under RNC chairmen George H. W. Bush, Lee Atwater, and, finally, George W. Bush (who affectionately and alternately calls Rove his 'boy genius' and 'turd blossom'). After trashing the personal character of former Texas Democratic Governors Mark White and Ann Richards, Texas Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett, and Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, Rove now uses his Felix the Cat-like bag of dirty tricks to assassinate the characters of noble and non-political men and women. It is clearly time to take action against Rove, and give this maniac a taste of his own bitter medicine."

Wayne Madsen writes: "Rove reached his outrage limit with me when Iraq war veteran and prisoner of war Private Jessica Lynch accused the Bush administration and the neo-con Pentagon of hyping her capture for blatant political purposes... The despicable Rove character assassination machinery soon went into full gear. First, gargoyle-like neo-con commentators such as Charles Krauthammer began criticizing Lynch for selling her book rights and accused her of hypocrisy. Then came reports (unproved and largely dismissed) that Lynch had been sexually molested while being held captive. Then the Rove coup de grace: news that Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine had obtained topless photos of Lynch frolicking with two other male soldiers before deploying to Iraq in early 2001... Poor Jessica found out what it is like to go from America's wholesome young heroine to an accused tart. All this, merely for confronting the evil Karl Rove."

With Karl Rove under attack, the Daily Enron has compiled Rove's most insidious political work into one great column, such as: "While on assignment, Esquire reporter Ron Suskind famously overheard Rove screaming into a White House phone, 'Tell him we'll f*** him. We'll f*** him like nobody ever has." Do we need any more proof that Rove is behind the vicious attacks on Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson?

Neal Gabler writes, "Thirty years ago, Nixon pursued the same goal [of destroying the Democratic Party], but deployed covert KGB methods in the belief that overtly attacking the basis of the political system was likely to bring opprobrium. Rove can operate in broad daylight partly because what he is doing is perfectly legal, partly because his plan is so bold that he realizes no one in the media is likely to call him on it, and partly because demonizing and destroying Democrats is now a tenet of the party he guides. It has been said of Bush that he intends to finish the Reagan revolution by embedding conservatism so deeply into the governmental fabric that it will take generations to undo it. What he is really finishing, though, is not the Reagan revolution but the Clinton wars, which had far less to do with ideology than with politics. As Rove has engineered it, this is about power, pure and simple. It is about guaranteeing electoral results."

James C. Moore writes: "Karl Rove led the nation to war to improve the political prospects of George W. Bush. I know how surreal that sounds. But I also know it is true. As the p-resident's chief political advisor, Rove is involved in every decision coming out of the Oval Office. In fact, he flat out makes some of them. He is co-president of the United States, just as he was co-candidate for that office and co-governor of Texas... And his role creates questions not addressed by our Constitution... Rove has influenced dealings with Iraq and North Korea, according to Bush administration sources. For instance, when the U.S. was notified, through formal diplomatic channels, that North Korea had nuclear technology, Congress was in the midst of discussing the Iraqi war resolution. Rove counseled the president to keep that information from Congress for 12 days, until the debate was finished, so it would not affect the vote."

AP reports, "The Terminator versus the national security adviser for California governor in 2006? Arnold Schwarzenegger, weighing a run for the job, met Thursday with Karl Rove, Bush 's top political adviser. If he decides to run, Schwarzenegger may face a challenge from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice , who has spoken to senior Republicans about running for California's top job... Rice, originally from Birmingham Ala., is on leave from Stanford University and was the school's provost from 1993 to 1999... Politics didn't come up in the actor's session with Rove, the officials said [yeah, RIGHT!]. But Rove plays a powerful role in selecting Republican candidates across the country and courting him could give Schwarzenegger's political fortunes a lift. Schwarzenegger is also monitoring an effort under way in California to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis through a recall campaign." Hey Republicans - vote for the one who has terminated the most people!

AP reports, "In a controversy that touched White House political adviser Karl Rove, Enron Corp., signed contracts with GOP consultant Ralph Reed worth more than half a million dollars, the FEC revealed in a ruling. Enron paid Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader, about $300,000 before the energy company's collapse. The payments came to light as part of an FEC inquiry into whether Enron's hiring of GOP consultant Reed was a sham designed to disguise an in-kind contribution from Enron to Bush's presidential effort. In dismissing a complaint against Rove and the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign, the FEC disclosed that the Enron-Reed ties involved far more money than has previously been reported... Nevertheless, the FEC said that on balance the evidence indicates that the retention of Reed's company 'was bona fide' and not designed to hide a contribution to Bush." Yeah, sure!

PentaPost reports, "Few would suspect that Rove regularly trades tips with Donna Brazile, Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager; she tells Rove how Bush's proposals are faring among Democrats, while Rove makes sure her clients are included in White House events... Brian Lunde, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee and one of the few Democrats on the list, helped the Bush 2000 campaign round up Democratic supporters. After Bush took office, Lunde has recommended Democrats for White House appointments, especially in cases requiring selections from both parties. During consideration of trade proposals and protective measures for the steel industry, Lunde could suggest to Rove potential Democratic supporters, which, in turn, advanced the interests of such Lunde clients as the Business Roundtable and Nucor Steel, which backed the administration initiatives."

Dana Milbank writes: "In an interview for a book published this week, [Karl] Rove claimed responsibility for talking Bush into the subject of 'tort reform' when he was packaging Bush for the 1994 Texas gubernatorial race...As Slater and Moore write, Rove was then a consultant to Philip Morris, an advocate for tort reform. As part of his work for the tobacco company, Rove in 1996 provided advice on a 'push poll' to see how best to damage then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, who was threatening to sue the tobacco industry. Rove presented a copy of the findings to Bush's office. Rove's claim of responsibility for the tort reform issue is somewhat at odds with a deposition he gave during the tobacco lawsuit. Asked whether he discussed overhauling civil liability law with then-Gov. Bush, he replied: 'I can't say that I did. But I can't say that I didn't. I do not recall. I know that tort reform was a significant part of his legislative agenda but it was not my area.'"

Robert Reich writes: "It's no accident that Karl Rove was one of Richard Nixon's moles. Using techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist Donald Segretti, Rove infiltrated Democratic organizations on behalf of Nixon's infamous 1972 campaign. Rove's formidable talents came to the attention of George Bush Senior, then incoming Republican National Committee chairman, and the rest is history. Seven presidential campaigns later, Rove masterminded a deluge of disinformation against John McCain, whose upset victory in New Hampshire had given him a shot at the Republican nomination. Word was spread among South Carolina voters that McCain had fathered a black daughter out of wedlock (McCain had, in fact, adopted a Bangladeshi girl), that McCain was a homosexual, that McCain's wife had a drug problem and so on. Now Rove is masterminding the Bush administration's press strategy, but it's far more than a press strategy."

"Karl Rove, the White House's senior political strategist, said today that Bush was a populist whose call for the elimination of taxes on stock dividends was aimed at 'the little guy'" - yeah, like Malvo with a Bushmaster. "Rove suggested that Bush ranked with Theodore Roosevelt as an environmentalist" - yeah, and Saddam ranks with Mother Theresa as a humanitarian. "He said the Republican Party had been strengthened by the controversy over Senator Trent Lott," - yeah, and Al Sharpton will be Bush's running mate. "And he played down his own reputation as the most powerful behind-the-scenes White House adviser, on both policy and politics, in generations... 'One of the myths is that there has to be some Svengali-like person sitting in the White House.'" Yeah - when the guy in the Oval Office can't watch TV and eat a pretzel at the same time. "Mr. Rove said that 'wealth is too important to be left to the wealthy.'" Absolutely! Which is why we must defeat ALL Republicans!

Helen Thomas writes: "The late Martha Mitchell, wife of the disgraced Attorney General John Mitchell whose Watergate crimes landed him in prison, used to say that politics is a 'dirty business.' I was reminded that her point is still valid today after reading a new book called Boy Genius about Karl Rove, the brains behind George W. Bush's victories in the 2000 and 2002 elections. Boy Genius, which refers to a nickname Bush bestowed on Rove, was written by political reporters Lou Dubose, Jan Reid and Carl M. Cannon. They note that Rove, Bush's political and policy guru, says his lifelong hero is Richard Nixon, the president who ordered the government cover-up of the 1972 GOP break-in at the national Democratic headquarters in the Watergate office building."

Karl Rove controls EVERYTHING in Washington - the White House, the media, and even the Republican Senate Caucus. Rove was forced to take charge of the Senate because Lott's continued visibility would drive up black turnout in 2004, which would make it much harder for Bush to steal another election. Also, Rove is a control freak. As the NY Times reports (without daring to say the word ROVE), "Mr. Frist's candidacy came as a relief to Mr. Bush's top political aides, who have despaired as the travails of Mr. Lott, a Mississippi Republican, have dominated the political headlines and events have veered out of their control, an unusual occurrence for a disciplined White House that has become accustomed to controlling much of the agenda of Washington."

NY Times propagandist Elisabeth Bushlover writes, "Republicans credit Mr. Rove for planning the strategy for the 2002 election almost from the first day that Mr. Bush became president. After the debacle of the 2000 election, when the Supreme Court propelled a candidate who had lost the popular vote into the White House, Mr. Rove foresaw, Republicans say, that he had no time to waste in expanding his client's narrow mandate. So in the early spring of 2001, Mr. Rove set out to make Republican gains with early and aggressive recruiting of candidates for critical House and Senate races and a major fund-raising push. White House advisers said he essentially controlled the Republican National Committee from the White House." But Bushlover leaves out the most important part of Rove's strategy - his relentless efforts to politicize the tragedy of 9-11, the War on Terror, and the wag-the-dog War in Iraq, all to elect Republicans. Send your outrage to letters@nytimes.com

Matt Bai writes that almost everything (except White House tours) passes through Karl Rove's office. Rove determines "every major domestic-policy decision, from stem cells to farm subsidies. At the same time, he has de facto control of the Republican Party... There is a kind of Wonderland dynamic at work here, in which the White House asserts its own curious reality, no matter how plain the contradictions... Rove's personal and forceful intervention in state races is extraordinary... 'He can go through nearly every race in every district... He can tell you more about the South Dakota Senate race than anyone in South Dakota'... Rove adores politics; he has spent much of his life consumed by it. But unlike the late Lee Atwater, his close friend and mentor, Rove is not content to be seen as a political operative. [No one] has Rove's singular influence on both politics and policy."

TomPaine.com writes, "There was much tittering in Washington after a Democratic Senate staffer found a computer disk in Lafayette Park containing two PowerPoint presentations outlining a confidential analysis of the upcoming election by Karl Rove, President [sic] Bush's political brain... the real news was elsewhere. In Rove/Mehlman's analysis of public opinion and the issue environment as the election approaches, a very confident view emerges. 'No evidence that Enron attacks, POTUS political activity or economy has significantly impacted the President's rating,' they write. And they're right. It's quite telling that they identify [the issues that are] their greatest worries. The Enron scandal goes to the heart of the administration's fealty to corporate donors. [But Democratic efforts to raise concerns about these issues] have all been easily deflected."

Reports Mike Allen: "Karl C. Rove, President's Bush's senior adviser, promised yesterday to wage 'a war' for permanent repeal of the estate tax, and congressional Democrats said they will investigate the use of a White House computer for a partisan presentation by Rove that fell into their hands. The 27-page PowerPoint presentation gives the White House outlook for individual House and Senate races. The computer file's properties show that 21 hours were spent editing it and that it was stored on an Executive Office of the President computer... Rove, in a rare public appearance, told the National Federation of Independent Business [that Bush will continue fighting for permanent repeal of the estate tax.] 'Don't look at it as a defeat,' Rove said. 'This is a war, and we need to make an ongoing commitment to winning the effort to repeal the death tax.'" (View the Power Point presentation at http://www.politicspa.com/mehlman-rove_files/v3_document.htm)

Julian Borger writes that Bush is "about to swing further to the right with the imminent departure of the president's [sic] closest adviser... The absence of Karen Hughes [will allow Karl Rove, the Republican Machiavelli Mr Bush brought with him from Texas, to expand his influence.] State department officials have complained about Mr Rove's burgeoning empire, arguing that foreign policy has become a hostage to domestic polls. [Rumours circulated in Washington that Hughes had lost a power struggle with Rove. The Esquire article reveals the] trouble in the White House machinery, which had previously been hidden from view by Mrs Hughes' strict management of the president's image... Hughes is already beginning to relax her grip, and a previously impermeable administration is beginning to leak under pressure."

Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post "President [sic] Bush's chief media adviser from the 2000 campaign infuriated top Republicans and White House officials yesterday with news that he made hefty contributions to the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas and two other Texas Democrats running for statewide office this fall. Mark McKinnon, a one-time Democrat who led Bush's media team in the presidential campaign... contributed a total of $14,000 to the three Democrats out of friendship and past professional relationships... McKinnon said he had apologized to Rove yesterday and would attempt to talk to the president or write him a note of apology... McKinnon said that in addition to contributing to Kirk and the other two candidates, he will also vote for the three Democrats in November. But he said he has learned a lesson."

John Nichols writes in Common Dreams, "In Texas... Karl Rove was always referred to as 'Bush's brain.' In fact, Austin reporters used to note that ideas Rove went on about in the bar on Saturday night had a funny way of popping out of his candidate's mouth on Monday morning. The Bush White House has gone to great pains... to downplay the influence that Rove has over the administration's political and policy agendas. But the Republican faithful know the real story, and they have made Rove a star of the [GOP's] fund-raising circuit... Rove told Wisconsin Republicans [that] its candidates must stop sounding so mean and greedy... Rove is buffing up the mantra, suggesting that 'compassionate conservatism' is now about shaping 'a different kind of politics' [and] that Republicans aren't about cutting needed programs in order to give tax breaks to the rich..." Well, there's a trainload of Bushit!

How long will America's War against Terrorism continue? According to Bush puppeteer Karl Rove, who knows something about the future of the Bush presidency, the war will be a new permanent part of the Bush presidency. Rove made his remarks on the Charlie Rose Show.

"Karl Rove…ridiculed Berlin, N.H., last week. In a speech at the rightwing American Enterprise Institute, he sarcastically referred to Berlin, where George W. Bush gave a speech as a presidential candidate, as a 'critical intellectual center.'…Rove's behavior with respect to Enron, the bankrupt energy behemoth, is another example of the rules not applying to him. He refused to sell his 1,350 shares of Enron stock after he went to work for the Bush White House. Our White House. Despite this conflict of interest, he sat in at a meeting between Enron officials and…Cheney to discuss energy policy. But don't worry about Karl Rove's investment in Enron. In a case of interesting timing, he finally cashed out in June - before Enron's collapse. When he sold his stock, Enron was worth more than $50 a share. Last Friday it was worth 26 cents a share." So writes Kathy Sullivan, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

"Karl Rove met with Hollywood executives [including righties Murdoch, Redstone] to enlist them in a World War II-style propaganda offensive. What will come of this is anybody's guess. Will gratuitous sex on the silver screen be cleverly used to send a message that Americans are as virile as ever, or will we be treated to a thriller in which anthrax wipes out Anaheim?…More likely, it will result in a puerile output of gratuitous rubbish, cheaply made to show even heavily Democratic Hollywood has climbed onto the Bush bandwagon. It's all enough to give you the creeps, like somebody has a clammy hand on our backbones to keep us from going wobbly. A White House spokesman said, 'The administration will share with studio executives the themes we're communicating at home and abroad of patriotism, tolerance and courage.' He almost makes it sound like these are virtues decent Americans can't naturally feel without a shove from Hollywood."

We've long known that Karl Rove secretly reads Democrats.com, because we're the only news channel that exposes the truth about the thoroughly corrupt Bush administration. So it comes as no surprise that two days after Democrats.com said Bush's biggest war risk was reviving the 'Credibility Gap' of the Vietnam era, Karl Rove consolidated several announcements into the first press conference by Vice President-in-Waiting Tom Ridge. Rove's mouthpiece Dan Bartlett said: "The worst thing that can happen to the federal government is to lose credibility with the American people, and that's why we will continue to be very careful with the information we have and make sure it will be accurate." Bartlett, of course, is best known to loyal Democrats.com readers for his role in scrubbing Bush's AWOL from the media (see democrats.com/smokingjet). Hey Karl, thanks for reading Democrats.com - but when are you going to tell the truth about stealing the election?

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wants a full accounting of Karl Rove's discussions with executives of companies in which he held stock until June 7. But Rove gave Waxman the proverbial finger, saying he would only do so if compelled by "a committee or House of Congress." Waxman is the ranking Democrat on the House Reform Committee, but chairman Dan Burton - who ONLY investigates right-wing slanders against Democrats - calls all the shots. If Burton turns Waxman down, Waxman will ask the Democratic Senate for help. You go, Henry!

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on Dan Burton's Government Reform Committee, has demanded details of Karl Rove's dealings with various companies in which he held stock until June 7. Rove admits meeting with the CEO of Intel shortly before the White House approved a merger sought by Intel - and we believe he broke the law by assisting Intel while owning its stock. Waxman wants to know about OTHER such contacts, but Rove is busy scrubbing his meeting logs with the help of Dan Bartlett, who scrubbed Bush's National Guard records. We demand subpoenas and a special prosecutor if any records are scrubbed!

Who came up with the idea to smear Clinton by creating false charges of White House vandalism and "thefts" from Air Force One? Karl Rove. Who created the "stolen" debate tape gate scheme? You can be sure that it was Karl Rove. Who once bugged his own office and then called the police to claim that the opposition was bugging him? Why, you guessed, it: it was Karl Rove. Good 'Ol Karl makes scum pond look good. That's why he's the Bush family hit man. After all, when you think you're of Royal Blood, like the Bushes do, you let your servants to do the dirty work. And Karl's a might darn loyal hit man.