Politics: Smells Like Rove

The SF Chronicle's Carla Marinucci has the goods on a GOP operative's devious plan to make Darrell Issa's California Coup d'Etat into a political plum for President Bush. There is simply nothing these people won't do. And the sooner we learn this lesson, the sooner we get off this hell-bound train. Read:

While White House and national GOP officials insist they won't get involved in the California recall, a memo obtained by The Chronicle outlines a Republican strategy to oust Gov. Gray Davis and help President Bush before the 2004 presidential election.

The memo by California GOP organizer Julie Leitzell, who heads a political action committee called CommonSense Direction, says the Oct. 7 recall election presents an opportunity to target disaffected voters -- particularly women.

"We will work outside of the campaigns and outside of the party," the memo to Republican activists says. "None of the candidates will be attending, as we want to make sure the media are steered toward the 'common sense women against Davis' angle."

Leitzell's memo clearly suggests the imprimatur of the White House.

"Mindy Tucker, former Bush campaign spokesperson and current Bush campaign operative in California, has the White House's blessing to set the record straight: The person responsible for this recall is sitting behind the governor's desk," the memo says.

[...]

Leitzell, reached Tuesday night, downplayed her role in a larger GOP strategy, saying she was a grassroots volunteer who had no connection to the White House or the Republican National Committee.

But her memo says Tucker, California Republican Party spokeswoman Karen Hanretty, and Tracy Schmitt -- formerly with the RNC and now with the Bush- Cheney 2004 campaign -- "will be coordinating seven simultaneous media- friendly events throughout California, (and) we have been asked to call the Bay Area's attention to just how much Gray Davis will cost us if he were left in office."

The memo states "the resulting issue-oriented and image-enhancing coverage will benefit the image of the Republican Party, the recall candidates, and will benefit President Bush as we remind the public of who is to blame for the mess in this state."

It goes on, it gets worse, and anybody who thinks the Karl Rove didn't spend a weekend holed up in his bloodstained cave thinking up this excretory plot may want to get into this incredible deal I've got going with some Nigerian businessman whose father was a brutal dictator.