Rove Smacks His Editor in 'Newsweek' Column

Jon Meacham thought he was hiring a political columnist in Karl Rove. What he got was an ombudsman.

Rove's latest column is entirely devoted to refuting the magazine's Jan. 28 cover story on the decline of the Republican party.

"[W]e are told recently...by Jon Meacham in this magazine that the 'chaotic nature of the Republican primary race' means "the party of Reagan is now divided in ways it has not been in more than a generation,'" he writes. "Many who witnessed the primary battles of 2000, 1996, 1992 or 1988 might disagree."

Rove also didn't like the cover line: "The Party's Over."

If Meacham wants to be called out in his own magazine, that's his business, but he should at least demand that his writers do it in a less blatantly self-serving fashion. The cover package in question was pegged to an excerpt from The Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg; the premise of the package was that George Bush's presidency is the reason for his party's woes. Rove, however, doesn't even mention the name of his former boss in his rebuttal. Hence his misleading insinuation that those heralding the Republican collapse draw their observations primarily from the closeness of the primary race.