'Holy Cow,' Exclaims MSNBC Host, Rove Thinks Bush Could Sink GOP

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http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Karl_Rove_to_Republican_candidates_Distance_1120.html

'Holy cow,' exclaims MSNBC host, Rove thinks Bush could sink GOP
Mike Aivaz and Jason Rhyne
Published: Tuesday November 20, 2007

Former chief Bush political strategist Karl Rove is telling GOP Oval Office seekers in 2008 to keep a safe distance from the man he helped to twice elect, according to MSNBC host Dan Abrams' interpretation of a recent opinion column penned by Rove.

"It sounds to me like Karl Rove is giving the Republican candidates advice that says 'get away from my guy,'" Abrams said of Rove's Saturday column in Newsweek, in which the the former adviser warned that President Bush's lagging poll numbers would do no favors for GOP presidential hopefuls in 2008. "Am I the only one who's reading Karl Rove and saying 'holy cow?'" the host asked later.

In the column, entitled "How to Beat Hillary (Next) November," Rove laid out a loose general election strategy to combat frontrunning Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

"So show them who you are in a way that gives the American people hope, optimism and insight," he wrote to would-be Republican nominees. "That's the best antidote to the low approval rates of the Republican president Those numbers will not help the GOP candidate, just as the even lower approval ratings of the Congress will not help the Democratic standard-bearer."

Abrams said that the advice was a telling indicator about the state of the Republican Party.

"When you've got Karl Rove advising...the Republican candidates to effectively distance themselves from President Bush," remarked the host, "I think that tells you how much trouble President Bush, and possibly the Republicans, are in."

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