"Politics as Usual"

Rove.

Karl Rove.

I'm not going to demonize him, talk about his politics, or his role in various political campaigns. I'm going to prognosticate.

Karl Rove used to live in Austin Texas. He was registered to vote there even though he lived in DC. This is a very common practice and not at all suspect. He owns a very large home in DC, and in fact also maintains a large home in Florida. Still not odd really. His home of residence since he sold the place in Austin is in Ingram Texas, a city in Kerr County. He rents this home out, b/c he doesn't live there. Still not that odd. He's never lived there, and in fact the largest of the two rental cottages is 814 sq feet, smaller than your average one bedroom apartment here in VA. Now that's a little odd.

Kerr County is west of San Antonio and Austin Texas. It is part of the 23rd congressional district. Here is a picture of the 23rd
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Now the 23rd was recently (2006) part of a Supreme Court case involving gerrymandering of districts. It was held by Democrats from its creation in 1967 till 1993. No issue here, politics change, people change, not every districts is a lock forever. So the Republicans had a lock on the districts from 1993 until 2002. In that year, a Democrat came within two points of taking back the seat. In 2002 the Republicans won the State legislature for the first time in over 100 years. They began the process of redistricting. OK, sometimes things need to change, but this might have crossed the line. Read the article if you want more details.

Two years after a Democrat almost took back the seat, and one year after a redistricting that would be struck down later by the Supreme Court, the Republicans won the seat by a huge margin.

In 2006, after the Supreme Court made its decision, the district had an open primary and after a somewhat confusing elections, the incumbent lost, a Democrat was back in the seat.

Now please, don't think that I only attribute stuff like this to Republicans. In my personal opinion, if you have risen to the level of State government, you are a bad person, and if you have made it to the National level, Congress, appointee, etc.; you are evil in a way that most people have never met. I'd rather live next to an ex-con than a politician.

So what does all this have to do with Karl Rove? Henry Bonilla, the former congressmen is now with a business consulting group. So the GOP is looking elsewhere to challenge the Democratic incumbent Rodriguez . I found this article claiming the GOP is targeting him, but the people they have so far are a lawyer, a businessman, and a County Commissioner. The lawyer from San Antonio appears to be where they are hanging their hat. But check out the map of the 23rd again and you'll see that San Antonio is outside of the 23rd, and that all of his business contacts in the city wont do him any good in a district that goes so far West of San Antonio.

I'm going out on a limb. The next time you see Rove in the paper, will be the formal retirement at the end of August. He will mention going back to Ingram and building a home. He'll help the current crop of Republicans try to unseat the Democrat in the 2008 election, and then he'll run in 2010.

Then in 2012 he will contact his dark master and the world will come to an end.

D-mn, and I said I wasn't going to demonize him. Hehehehehe