So Much For Momentum

Wittle Karl Rove is pissed:

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove expressed frustration Monday over Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist's decision not to appear with President Bush at a rally in Pensacola.

"Let's see how many people show up in Palm Beach on 24 hrs notice versus 8 or 9,000 people in Pensacola," Rove told CNN referring to a Crist rally quickly organized by the campaign after the GOP gubernatorial candidate canceled his appearance with the President.

Roves comments came even as even as other Senior White House administration officials tried to downplay the cancellation, noting Crist is campaigning in more moderate regions of the state as he tries to pick up independent voters on the final day of his campaign.

I think you just saw the end of the Rovian era of Republican politics in that quote. His leadership and the leadership of his prop-in-chief Bush have so alienated the public and painted themselves into a corner that he's turned his GOP "permanent majority" into a regional majority that can only show their face in the reddest parts of the country. Rove's pissed at Charlie Crist but he's really pissed at all these Republican legislators who are out for themselves and moving away from him in droves. Not his style of leadership: witness the voter suppression tactics. But they're backing a new horse:

But Crist isn't canceling appearances with all national Republicans. He was joined by Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, the maverick senator who often finds himself at odds with the White House, at a rally in Jacksonville Monday afternoon.

Most politicians appear to me to be vindictive. And there are other instances of Republicans losing their cool before the votes are cast, in a kind of pre-mortem of recriminations and blame-shifting (Of course, some, like Richard Perle, are angry about such backbiting getting out before the election). But Karl Rove doesn't seem to be someone who would let his slip show in public like this unless he was really angry or really depressed. Here's Digby:

One can only imagine what kind of tongue lashing he just took from the spoiled brat in chief over this bungle. The pictures of this trainwreck of a rally with the all-star team of George and Jeb up there alone with nutty election fixer Katherine Harris are going to be precious.

The fall of Rove is one of the big stories of the election. And he knows it.

If anything shows you that Republicans are not invincible, that there's literally nothing behind their boasts, it's this little incident the day before the election. There's blood in the water and all Democrats have to do is turn out their voters.