So now it’s official. As odum predicted first, the Governor has chosen attorney Jon Anderson to replace Representative Francis Brooks, now the Statehouse Sergeant-at-Arms. While possessing Democratic bona fides enough to give Douglas a weak pretense of justification (he was briefly city chair and has hosted a few fundraisers), the fact is that there’s a reason why the Montpelier Democratic Caucus rejected him so soundly (out of five possible candidates to appear on the list forwarded by the committee, Anderson came in dead last with 5 total votes including his own – the winners were Mary Hooper with 16 votes, Cary Brown with 15 and Matt Levin with 11). So now the citizens of Montpelier have their own little Joe Lieberman. Thanks, Jim!

The reason, of course, is that he is conservative by Democratic standards in general, and off the charts by Montpelier standards. If you ask people who work around the Statehouse, all you’ll hear is shock at the idea that he is anything other than a Republican. He works with anti-environmental interests and allies himself closely with Douglas’ people – which is, of course, exactly why he got the job – he’s a ‘yes man’ to the nth degree.

But he won’t hold it for long. Mary Hooper is likely already making calls to prepare her primary campaign, and she trounced him by an overwhelming margin in one citywide race already. Montpelier Dems will be livid at this kick in the nuts from Douglas and Anderson and Montpelier residents at large will not put up with a right-winger representing them in the legislature any longer than they have to. Especially in a leftie town like Montpelier.

( – promoted by gnome)

It’s become political hegemony that the reason for George W Bush’s ascendence is the unparalleled genius of Karl Rove. That Rove is so good at what he does that liberals of all stripes have found themselves perplexed and outmanuevered at every turn going all the way back to Bush’s defeat of the much beloved Ann Richards for the Texas governorship. That Rove is the sort of master gamesman Democrats wish they had on their team. Here’s an example, clipped via Steve, who has an interesting Rove thread going:

(Clip from July 12, 2005)

(Chris) MATTHEWS: Do you think the Democrats wish they had a guy as good as Rove?

Senator JOE BIDEN: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. But I hopefully, yeah, yeah.

Steve is using the clip to bounce off of Glenn Greenwald, and two are making the point that the pundit class simply can’t bear to have a conversation about the merits of any scandals consuming the White House without changing the subject. That they must always demonstrate their imagined superior insight by crudely attempting to repackage such discussions in such a way that they fit into their simplistic notions of amoral Washington gamesmanship. In the process, of course, they come off as idiots.

But what Steve and Greenwald are breezing over is that the fundamental thesis to this particular narrative – that Rove is a political mastermind – is just as much bunk as every other piece of their argument. Unfortunately, it’s bunk that has crept through over the last six years, enough so that most political observers accept it as fact.

Let’s debunk after the fold (and yes, there is a Vermont corollary…)

Any arborist will tell you that a monocultural stand of trees is vulnerable. As tall and robust as they may seem, without some sort of agricultural diversity, the entire population could be wiped out by a single, otherwise passing blight that it’s limited genetics happen to be susceptible to.

That’s not to say that the blight is a genius. That its assessed the situation and made a masterful strategy. The blight is just doing what it does – and it happens to be in the right place at the right time.

That’s what we’re looking at with the Rove phenomenon. The Washington political culture has, over the last few generations, become a sort of monoculture that is uniquely susceptable to the blight that is Karl Rove and George Bush – and not because they’re smart. They’re not – and in fact, if Rove was nearly as smart as everyone likes to think of him as, his brains probably would’ve tripped him up.

The fact is that Rove is so crude, so relentlessly politically sociopathic and so bereft of any concept of going too far that he caught the greater political establishment completely off guard. Time after time, Rove’s shameless audacity astounded the political class, and time after time that same audacity paid off with success because the insiders couldn’t believe he was doing what he was doing and were incapable of facing it, let alone defending against it.

And yet when you look at what Rove has been doing or saying, its as simple as it could possibly be – be as slimy as possible from every possible direction at every possible moment. It doesn’t matter what your strengths and weaknesses are, or what your opponents’ are. Just throw everything at the wall, regardless of whether or not it is “fair game.” It’s pure bull-in-the-china-shop.

What the insiders really notice is what, to them, looks like jiujitsu of the most audacious kind; specifically, going after the president’s opponents on the terms of what, at first glance would be their strengths and Bush’s weaknesses. But the truth is that this is almost incidental – Rove goes after everyone on anything and everything. It’s just the unconventional attacks that seem so… well, unconventional.

And that’s why they’ve been so effective. Not because he’s so smart by a long shot.

Imagine Being There if Chance the Gardener were a troglodyte.

And what we’re finally seeing is this blight running its course. Eventually, the fact that Rove is actually a twit was going to get him into trouble. The bull-in-the-china-shop schtick is, after all, all the guy’s got. Seriously – the GOP has lost both houses of congress, Bush is still in the doghouse, and the scandals that are front and center at present date from actions the administration has taken since the election – not 2-4 years ago. Does this sound smart?

Now that we’re all finally developing some meaningful – if tenuous – defense against this approach, all that remains is Rove the bumbler. Rove the fool. Rove the incompetent.

Which was all he ever really was to begin with.

In Vermont, former Chair Jim Barnett played much the same role to similar results. Barnett was focused on the top of the ticket, of course, and was a great fit with the Governor’s tendencies to play nasty. Barnett has also enjoyed the strange status of “genius” bestoyed on him by the media, despite the fact that his approach has left the state GOP in shambles.

But Barnett is a lot smarter than Rove. He saw an out with the McCain campaign and took it (and just before the auditor recount).

Slick. And slickness will get you far in this business.

The Rove phenomenon proves that smarts, on the other hand, are simply optional.