Rove Grounded After Admitting Palin "Is Not The Most Qualified Candidate?"

Rove admits it was a "political" pick-- so what happened to "America First?"

In an attempt to get out ahead of the new NY Times/CBS polling information that shows that McCain's "Palin bounce" has gone flat, Republican Party strategist Karl Rove admitted last night that the subsiding excitement over the largely unqualified Alaskan is to be expected and that she was just a "political pick."

Rove then slyly tries equating Obama's careful selection of a knowledgeable, tested, and experienced statesman, Joe Biden, with McCain's irresponsible and cynical choice of a superficially attractive and totally diversionary Wasilla hockey mom and moose hunter. Even with that stretch, Rove had to admit Palin "is not the most qualified candidate." Rove is reflecting, for his own reasons, of course, what a lot of Republicans are saying privately, that Palin is spectacularly unqualified for serious office. This morning Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel went public with his dismay at the choice. "She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything... I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

While we're on the topic of Rove, I wish I could ask him what his strategy is about keeping all his candidates from debating their Democratic challengers. We went over a few of the cowardly Republicans-- particularly shakin'-in-his-boots Randy Kuhl, Randy Forbes and Gordon Smith-- on Sunday. Yesterday we saw several other Republicans slink away from challenges. All three of the Miami-Dade right-wing Republicans, the Diaz-Balart brothers (aka- Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen refused to commit to debates. Ros-Lehtinen, in fact, who is running scared now that she sees her shallow support evaporating, "said she has no time for a debate any time between now and the election."

Meanwhile, up in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Charlie Dent's floundering re-election campaign is besieged from all sides. Still recovering from the firing of a GOP operative and former Dent staffer for viciously racist and misogynistic rantings-- which Dent has refused to disavow-- Dent stumbled badly by voting against this week's Comprehensive Energy Bill just as the huge so-called "donations" ($75,831) he was taking from Big Oil were exposed.

Instead of defending his record or debating Democrat Sam Bennett, Dent has decided to lie on hiding out in Washington and conducting a Rovian smear campaign against his opponent. Bennett keeps accepting debate invitations from media outlets and area colleges, all of which Dent turns down. Bennett's campaign has rubbed his nose in his own dirt by putting out a list of the top ten reasons Dent dodges debates:

1. Our country needs change.  Dent has had it his way in Washington for four years and four out of five times Charles W. Dent with George W. Bush.
2. Folks want to bring that change home.  Dent attacks Sam’s work to help clean up Lehigh Valley communities as “money wasted” while his only two legislative accomplishments in four years are renaming post-offices.
3. Pennsylvania has suffered 1400 casualties in Iraq.  Dent went to Washington, knowing there were no WMD’s and still votes to use trillions of dollars in Iraq.
4. When our troops are gone, Dent votes to tax military families, and when they come home, he says NO to their healthcare and job training.
5. Wages are falling and the wealth gap is growing while Dent makes three times the income of the average Lehigh Valley voter.  Then he votes NO for fully raising the minimum wage and ensuring equal pay for equal work.
6. 212,000 Pennsylvania kids are uninsured as Dent accepts taxpayer-funded healthcare. Then he votes NO for expanding it for kids and military reservists.
7. Companies like Mack Trucks cut jobs in the Lehigh Valley and their mega millionaire CEO’s still cut checks to Dent for thousands of dollars.  Then he votes NO to stopping CAFTA deals that trade Pennsylvania jobs for corporate profits and NO to the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers a fair shake.
8. Special interests are trying to take over Washington, and Dent accepts more than $90,000 from lobbyists.  Then he refuses to give it back.
9. Gas prices are soaring and so are Dent’s campaign contributions from Big Oil.  Dent accepts more than $75,000 from Big Oil and gives Big Oil $14 billion in tax breaks instead of investing in renewable energy, says NO to renewable energy, and says NO to efficiency and conservation.
10. Prescription drug costs are skyrocketing while Dent accepts tens of thousands of dollars from Big Pharma.  And he votes NO for negotiating drug prices for Medicare patients and NO to allowing seniors to import FDA approved prescriptions from Canada.