Rove issues call for action to GOP conservatives
Time is right, he says, for aggressive pursuit of the party's agenda
WASHINGTON -- White House political strategist Karl Rove, the architect behind President Bush's reelection, told a cheering crowd of conservatives yesterday that the Republican Party had seized the mantle of idealism and reform from the Democrats, and should now move aggressively to implement its agenda.
Providing a glimpse into the GOP's line of attack for the 2006 midterm elections, Rove described Democrats as obstructionist and wedded to the past. "And that's not a good place to be in American politics," he told the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual convention.
About 4,000 activists from the political right gathered in a sprawling federal building named after conservative icon Ronald Reagan to celebrate Bush's victory and charge that the mainstream media is biased toward the left. Speakers during the first day of this three-day convention filled the hall with praise for bloggers, talk radio, and gun advocates -- and disdain for journalists, academics, and "snobs from Boston who are contemptuous of Sioux City," as Kayne Robinson of the National Rifle Association put it in a speech.
But Rove, who described the 2004 presidential race as a "steep mountain to climb," was the man of the hour as he stepped to the podium to proclaim conservatism "the dominant political creed in America." Another conservative political analyst, journalist Michael Barone, argued that the 2004 elections left "the most Republican electorate that we've had since polling was invented in 1935."
"I'm not saying there has to be a Republican majority" as long-lasting as the Democrats' post-FDR hold on power, said Barone, author of "The Almanac of American Politics."
"A lot will depend on the success or failure of President Bush and his proposals in Congress," he added. "But the numbers are there."
The conservatives' analysis of the heated 2004 race, in which Democrats increased 2000 voting turnout by 16 percent and Republicans by 23 percent, came as the Democratic Party is undergoing wrenching internal debates about what went wrong and how to correct course. Last week, the Democratic National Committee elected as its chair former presidential candidate Howard Dean, who argues that the party's problem stems from both mechanics, lacking an effective grass roots structure, and message: Dean says the party can't win by being "Republican lite."
Barone attributed the Republican win largely to GOP armies on the ground that held local leaders strictly accountable for voter registration and get-out-the-vote goals. In a viewed echoed by many Democratic strategists, Barone said the Democrats erred by using "command and control" techniques of deploying paid staff who had few connections to the local community.
But Rove focused on the party's message, arguing the Republican Party is realigning American politics by borrowing the identity of its opponents. Idealism, "once largely the preserve of liberalism," now infuses Republican politics through Bush's muscular pursuit of democracy abroad, he said.
"We are seizing the mantle of idealism," said Rove, who was recently named deputy White House chief of staff. "This president has made a powerful case for spreading human liberty and defending human dignity."
He also described conservatives as agents of change, another label historically attached to liberals. Quoting British political philosopher Edmund Burke, Rove said conservatism should apply timeless truths to changing circumstances and that "most of our fundamental institutions -- the tax code, healthcare, pension plans, legal system, public education, worker training -- were created for the world of today and not tomorrow."
Like other speakers, Rove attacked liberals who contend that Bush did not win with a clear mandate to aggressively move forward on his agenda.
"What is significant about November's victory is not simply that the president won, but how he won. In the 2004 election the president put all his chips on the table," Rove said. "This president consistently made it clear what he believed and made clear to the American people that he would act on what he believed." 