To perpetuate this narrative, Karl Rove sat down with TIME's Mike Allen and fed him a line of BS worthy of... Well, Karl Rove.
Exit polls showed heavy discontent with the course of the war, and Bush announced the departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the next day. But Rove took comfort in results of the Connecticut Senate race between the anti-war Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary over his support for the war. "Iraq mattered," Rove says. "But it was more frustration than it was an explicit call for withdrawal. If this was a get-out-now call for withdrawal, then Lamont would not have been beaten by Lieberman. Iraq does play a role, but not the critical, central role."
In other words, "the candidate we spent most of 2000 calling too liberal won in '06 -- Huzzah for the war!" Of course, if the situation were reversed, if Lamont beat Lieberman and liberals were pointing to the race as a referendum on the war, Rove would tell us that a race in Connecticut isn't a representative poll of the nation as a whole -- most americans aren't from Connecticut. And Boy Genius would be right. It says a lot about the complete rout of the GOP that Rove has to point to Lieberman as a win...
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Tags: news politics iraq corruption crime scandal elections republican democrat Karl Rove bullshit
