Rove Dissuades GOP From Rovian Politics

Between Bill Cunningham and the Tennessee Republican party , there sure have been a lot of Rovian Attacks(TM) on Barack Obama's middle name, "Hussein," in the last day or so. It's signaled new vistas for the Internet, as "Hussein" has already been institutionalized as a verb -- like "Swift Boat," which was also a hilarious verb. But not every Republican operative thinks this Rovian Attack is the best way to go at Obama. A promising, young strategist named Karl Rove, of Texas, thinks that Rovian Politics might do more harm to the GOP than Barack Obama in the general election. Can this upstart Karl Rove rid the party of Rovian Politics?

Thank god for people like this Karl Rove, who looks beyond the Rovian tactics of the Bush years for brighter pastures:

At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, "Sen. Obama."

"The context was, you're not going to stimatize this guy. You shouldn't underestimate him," one of the executive directors said. Rove said that the use of "Barack Hussein Obama" would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted and would hurt the party.

But can Rove save the party from the dirty politics that became standard before his time? Who knows. George W. Bush's strategists have really dug a deep hole in the last eight years.

 Rove: Don't "Hussein" Obama [Marc Ambinder]