In an interesting exchange on Fox News Sunday, author and veteran journalist Bob Woodward blasted Republican strategist Karl Rove for creating a super PAC that acts as a Soviet-style “Politburo” with the power to decide Republican primaries.
During the panel segment, Rove claimed that he had created the Conservative Victory Project super PAC to “avoid having stupid candidates who can’t win general elections.” He went on to say that campaign money is “too difficult to raise to be spending it on behalf of candidates who have little chance of winning in the general election.”
Woodward expressed shock that Rove was still able to attract Republican donors after his American Crossroads super PAC got only a 1% return on the $103 million they spent during 2012 election.
“My last book is going to be called ‘Some People Never Go Away’ and Karl’s going to get his own chapter because he never goes away,” Woodward quipped. “Maybe two chapters because you never know what the next bounce will be with you.”
“But what’s interesting is the focus on money,” he continued. “I think the problem in the Republican Party is really not money. I think they’ve got lots of it. I think it is theory of the case, ‘Why are we here? What is our message? How to connect to the real world?’ And this idea about $30 million [in campaign spending] here or we’re going to do that, I think is the wrong track.”
“A lot of this is just examining these candidates, looking at their record, doing the kind of research on ourselves that the other side is already going to be doing and trying to have discussions behind the scenes among conservative groups as to how strong are these respective candidates,” Rove explained.
“But you’re going to set yourself up as a kind of Politburo vetting these candidates,” Woodward replied. “I mean, the whole theory of Republicanism is to let the local, state or district decide.”
“We believe in markets,” Rove said. “It’s just the opposite of the Politburo. The more people that participate, the better off we are. The more we examine the quality of these candidates from top to bottom, the more likely we end up with fewer Christine O’Donnells and more Rand Pauls.”
Watch the heated exchange in the video below.
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