Karl Rove Tells Rand Paul To Pipe Down About The Lewinsky Stuff
Source: TPM
CATHERINE THOMPSON FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 11:57 AM EST
Bashing former President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal isn't a good strategy to use if Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to position himself as a presidential contender in 2016, according to election oracle Karl Rove.
The veteran Republican strategist said Tuesday in an appearance on Fox News that Paul needs to shelve personal ambition and focus on a bigger message if he wants to field a viable campaign. "Frankly, Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda for the future of the country," he said. Paul has lobbed a series of attacks at Clinton in recent weeks, ranging from calling him a "serial philanderer" to suggesting Democrats return money they raised with his help.
Rove said the Kentucky Republican ought to focus on strengthening his "skills" as a candidate, rather than on a White House affair that's already 15 years old. "I'm not certain again that beating up on Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky is a particularly good thing to strengthen your skills for the 2016 contest," he said.
Even if Rove thinks 2016 contenders should be above such tactics, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the Lewinsky scandal is definitely fair game if Hillary Clinton decides to run for president.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/karl_rove_rand_paul_clinton_bashing
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Carnival Cruz?
grasswire
(50,130 posts)warrant46
(2,205 posts)He is the only Bush with a brain, speaks Spanish and is relatively free of scandal. He'll be the choice of big money and the Banksters
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts).
Enrique
(27,461 posts)now that Christie is out, the bankers will go to Jeb.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Rove is probably very aware of the rumor mill about Jeb and therefore he does not want Rand running around crazy. Rand Paul has not been perfect by a longshot so if they want to bring in Bill's $100 million affair then their candidates will be taken to task for their shortcomings. I really don't think they want to go there.
warrant46
(2,205 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)family and they are dependent on him getting the right lies out.
David Zephyr
(22,785 posts)He's already doing it. In fact, I think he could have had a hand in taking out Christie.
It's all about Jeb Bush and Rove's the Bush family's hit man.
Any GOP candidate that gains will be taken out.
The wild card? It's Huckabee. I think he's already angling to be Jeb's VP.
Beacool
(30,253 posts)That's his guy.
hlthe2b
(102,494 posts)LongTomH
(8,636 posts)It's not like they have any real agenda for creating jobs, or healthcare or decreasing inequality, or anything people really give a shit about!!!!!
Gothmog
(145,794 posts)Rove is correct and it must pain him to see Rand Paul being the front runner due to the collapse of Christie
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I was at the gym last eve working out with a group of women. One of them, the wife of an estate lawyer, said something about the chatter about Hillary and Monica Lewinsky. Of course I'm certain they all get their news from Fox. Another questioned about what it had to do with Hillary unless she was having an affair with Monica. After that the conversation was interrupted and moved on. But what I took from it was that even the Fox brainwashed aren't buying it.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)and isnt Murdoch friendly with Hillary?
Xipe Totec
(43,892 posts)Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)There it is...
Rove's new nickname: The Election Oracle!!!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Rebel Rand is firing up the erratic and dangerous GOP base at the expense of the general election.
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts). . . Karl Rove is a real professional. Of course, his profession makes him an occupational liar. For lurking Freepers who think I'm just being partisan, so is James Carville. In addition to political campaign consultants, who are just a special class of public relations agents, prime examples of occupational liars are salesmen, lawyers and politicians (who, perhaps not coincidentally, usually start out as lawyers).
The point is that the Rover is an exceptionally good occupational liar, or EGOL. After all, he made Bush the Frat Boy into an attractive enough candidate to get him within stealing distance of two national elections. That was no easy task.
The first part of being an EGOL is to know what sells and what's an what doesn't. The Monica Lewinsky caper was never a good selling point in the first place. How many of us knew that President Clinton (another EGOL) was just asking for trouble when he said "I didn't have sex with that woman" instead of "On the advise of an attorney, I have nothing to say about that topic"? The problem with the matter of Mr. Clinton and she and his fellow consenting adult, Ms. Lewinsky, did together, was that nobody cared except ESAPPs (exceptionally stupid and partisan politicians). Fifteen years later, the only people who still care are ESAPPs like Senator Paul.
Another reason the Lewinsky caper doesn't sell is that there are better examples of politicians who don't level with the American people than Bill Clinton or even Chris Christie. For example, Richard ("I am not a crook" Nixon, George W. (Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction) Bush and his sidekick, former Vice Premier Cheney were much bigger liars than Clinton, and lied about matters of greater consequence than a tacky blow job.
What are the Republicans to do in 2016? One might think that they could point to President Obama. but they can't do that. It's not that President Obama hasn't lied to us. This is the same president who tells us that mass surveillance of American citizens saves lives and isn't a violation of the Fourth Amendment and that the TPP and TTIP will create jobs. Unfortunately, any Republican president will say the same thing and it won't be any more truthful than saying he threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River. All they can do is holler "Benghazi," but that is even less attractive as a selling point that what down in the Oval Office closet in the nineties. Well, no one ever accused Darrell Issa of being an EGOL. It's a rare man who can be both an EGOL and an ESAPP at the same time.
Response to DonViejo (Original post)
anasv This message was self-deleted by its author.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)for after Hillary is the candidate.
Expect lots, lots, lots more of this kind of gossip campaigning if you vote for Hillary as the Democratic candidate. It's unfair. It's mean. It's very Republican to try to blacken Hillary for the Lewinsky matter.
Obviously, Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with Monica Lewinsky. But that will not help Hillary because Americans love to gossip about sex. Americans are obsessed with sex. The Republicans know this because they tend to be obsessed with sex.
Hillary will excite so much malicious, unfounded gossip. I can't understand why she even wants to run.
reddread
(6,896 posts)It may have serious consequences with certain demographics, but its a volatile situation.
Expect it from below, not above. Rove is going to feign distance and some disgust.
The banks open at 9 AM, take it straight there.
aquart
(69,014 posts)I love Elizabeth but she has work to do in the Senate.
A wonderful woman with an excellent right-thinking mind, but a political novice.
Her partisans do none of us any favors.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Rand Paul will listen to him. Paul listens to nobody, particularly not to Karl Rove.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)Ilsa
(61,710 posts)financially during Clinton's eight years. He doesn't want to remind the voters of that and compare it to the most recent GOP prez.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)I'm no fan of Rove but he is right. If Hilary runs and Rand tries to use the Lewinsky affair to tarnish Hilary it will backfire. Hilary was the victim in this and the innocent wife. That is not going to go well with liberal and independent women voters. And no other Republican came out and told that idiot that. Just shows you their desperation. Trifling.
Beacool
(30,253 posts)Rove has been around long enough to know the idiocy of Rand's strategy. Attacking a female candidate by bringing up her husband's misdeeds is stupid. It will piss off women, we know that wives are not an appendage of their husbands.
Let Rand carry on, he's digging his own grave.