Rove, Leaving a Sour Taste

White House political guru Karl Rove's chirpy optimism is meeting with more than a little skepticism these days, whether it's his insistence that President Bush's dismal approval ratings simply reflect a public "sour on the war," or his assurance to House Republicans that Bush's immigration plan is a political winner.

And then of course there's the fact that the city's chattering class is madly scratching for clues about his fate in the CIA leak case.

What Me Worry?

As I wrote in Tuesday's column , when Rove spoke on Monday at the American Enterprise Institute, the biggest takeaway was his explanation of President Bush's steeply declining job-approval numbers.

"People like this president," Rove insisted, citing secret Republican National Committee polls that, it appears, directly contradict everything in the public domain. "They're just sour right now on the war."

Carl P. Leubsdorf writes in the Dallas Morning News today: "Karl Rove's virtuoso performance this week before an audience of journalists and policy wonks seemed straight from the pages of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman: 'What, Me Worry?' "

The Denver Post editorial board writes: "So, White House political maestro Karl Rove thinks he has the American people all figured out. Citizens are in a 'sour time,' he says, because of the war in Iraq. ' . . .

"That may or may not be, but to say Americans are 'sour' simply because of the Iraq war is a foolish miscalculation. As any of his neighbors could tell him, Americans have plenty more to be sour about. We wonder if Rove is truly unaware of them."

And Rep. John Murtha , (D-Pa.) the famously anti-war hawk, writes in the Huffington Post: "Karl Rove recently said the public is 'sour' on the war in Iraq. The use of the word 'sour' disgracefully minimizes public reaction to the way this Administration has run the war. Try using disillusioned, betrayed, and deeply concerned about the lives of our service members, the future of the military, and the future of this country if we continue down this open-ended and ill defined path."

Rove Sent Packing

The White House sent Rove to the Hill yesterday to quiet the growing House Republican rebellion over Bush's immigration plans.

In his briefing yesterday, press secretary Tony Snow spun it as a big hit.

"Karl Rove was on the Hill today. Karl came out and he said that his meeting with the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives was 'hopeful, optimistic, and positive.' The meeting there -- and I'd seen some talk that maybe this was going to be a highly contentious meeting -- the readout I get is that it was not at all. It was respectful; people were obviously having exchanges of views on things."

But Mike Viqueira reports for NBC: "Karl Rove traveled to Capitol Hill this morning to make his pitch for the president's immigration plan, but some GOP members who were canvassed after they left the closed-door gathering were not impressed. Rove stayed for only 10 to 12 minutes total -- just enough time to essentially rehash Bush's Monday speech and answer a few questions, according to 10 or so members NBC News spoke with after the meeting. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a true-blue conservative who is adamantly opposed to the plan, called the presentation 'boilerplate.' Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), another opponent, said it was 'truncated.' Both professed to be mystified as to why the president is trying to do this before 'securing the border.' To say the least, they were unmoved by what Rove had to say."