Karl Rove Begs Republicans To Keep Quiet & Pretend They're Sane Before The Midterm Elections

When the GOP lost its mind and abandoned the mainstream

Mississippi has the highest infant mortality and teen birth rates in the U.S. Last night the last abortion clinic in the state closed its doors-- permanently if the weak, feckless Democrats don't reform the Supreme Court. As of today, abortions are illegal in the state. Wealthy women in need of an abortion can fly to New York or L.A. or Chicago. Poor women… back to dangerous, illegal procedures? The Orwellian state Attorney General, Lynn Fitch (R) gloated: “Mississippi’s laws to promote life are solid and thanks to the Court’s clear and strong opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, they can now go into effect. As we have said throughout this case, Roe v. Wade presented a false choice between a woman’s future and her child’s life. As we proceed in this post-Roe world, the people of Mississippi and of all the states will be able to fully engage in the work of both empowering women and promoting life. I am grateful that the Court has given us this opportunity… Now, our work to empower women and promote life truly begins. The Court has let loose its hold on abortion policymaking and given it back to the people. The task now falls to us to advocate for the laws that empower women— laws that promote fairness in child support and enhance enforcement of it, laws for childcare and workplace policies that support families, and laws that improve foster care and adoption. We must renew our commitment to weaving a safety net that helps women in challenging circumstances and gives their children life and hope.”

This morning, Emily Brooks reported that “House Republicans are weighing what kind of national-level abortion ban legislation to pursue if they win the House majority next year, with a 15-week ban or further on the table.” Unlike the Republicans in the House and unlike the Republicans running for office, 62% of Americans tell pollsters that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 57% of Americans disapprove of the illegitimate Trump court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, including 43% who strongly disapprove. That breaks down to 82% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who disagree with the Court and 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who agree with the Court.

Alex Mooney’s Life At Conception Act asserts rights from the “moment of fertilization.” The legislation has 163 GOP cosponsors, not just the all around psychopaths like Marjorie Traitor Greene, Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorn, Claudia Tenney, Lauren Boebert and Scott Perry but the ones who we keep being told are the “sane” Republicans like Liz Cheney and Peter Meijer. Even more extreme is Mike Kelly’s Heartbeat Protection Act, which would ban abortions at about 6 weeks-- and that one has 113 cosponsors.

Writing around dawn this morning, Will Saletan reported that Every poll taken since Dobbs shows a significant boost for Democrats in the midterms. And that includes surveys by Republican polling firms. This is how Saletan summarized polling on the impact so far:

• Dobbs is energizing Democrats more than Republicans

• Democrats are more likely than Republicans to name abortion as their top issue

• Democrats are more likely than Republicans to base their voting decisions on this issue

• Support for abortion rights is a net positive for candidate

• Abortion helps Democrats on the generic ballot

Now let’s turn to in a slightly different direction and see what Karl Rove had to say yesterday in his Wall Street Journal column. “It’ll help Democrats,” he wrote, “if their Republican opponents say intemperate-to-insane things ill-suited for a general election. The other possible aid for Democratic candidates is Trump. If he announces a 2024 presidential bid before November— as is rumored— it’ll make the midterms a referendum on the former president when they should be a referendum on Biden’s policy failures and leadership shortcomings.”

Trump candidate Blake Masters is nothing but a treasure trove of crackpot statements, although that could describe any number of Arizona Republican candidates. He said, for example, that “America’s gun violence problem boiled down to ‘Black people, frankly,’ and his apparent embrace of the ‘replacement theory’ promulgated by white supremacists when he accused Democrats of trying to flood the nation with immigrants ‘to change the demographics of our country.’” His record is filled with pro-Nazi, anti-semitics tropes. So far his Republican primary opponents are using them against him, but the GOP base in Arizona is so sick itself, that all that happens is that his popularity— among them but no one else— rises.

This morning, I spoke with Connor Lounsbury, Lucas Kunce’s deputy campaign manager. He pointed to unhinged recent comments by Kunce’s two top opponents, Eric Greitens, who called his RINO-hunting ad “humorous,” and Eric Schmitt, who tried out-doing Greitens’ sick ad, with his own deranged blowtorch ad. “You don't win by sitting on the sidelines,” said Lounsbury. "Lucas has promised to be a warrior for working people, and it's a promise he fulfills every day by fighting back against these criminals. It's not just what they say, it's what they do— these political elites are responsible for destroying independent farmers, for breaking working people, for opposing unions, for criminalizing abortion. If we don't fight back, they get away with it. Lucas won't let that happen."

And do actions count in the Rove law of how to lose an election too? The Michigan GOP’s top gubernatorial candidate, Ryan Kelley was arrested June 9 by the FBI for his role in the J-6 insurrection and was arraigned on federal charges this morning accusing him of violent actions at the U.S. Capitol. None of these pardon seekers have been arraigned yet for what they sought pardons for.