Subject: [big campaign] Rove: GOP's No. 1 job is stopping Democratic health reform plan
From: "Adam Jentleson (CAPAF)" <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:00:21 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

No wonder Sen. Inhofe says he's going to vote against reform no matter what:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/27/inhofe-without-even-reading/

Never mind the fact that the average American's health care costs are projected to double over the next decade if we do nothing...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/18/reinhardt.health.inflation/index.html

...conservative obstructionists have already decided to oppose reform no matter what to further their narrow political interests.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13223705

Rove: GOP's No. 1 job is stopping Democratic health reform plan

Backs Bennett Bush's ex-adviser says Utahn key to Republican Party

Karl Rove, the architect of President George W. Bush's presidential wins, said Republicans will be defined this year by their effort to block Democrats' efforts for health care reform.

"This year is going to be defined by Republicans and conservatives by what we oppose," he told Utahns today. But they can't stop there, Rove added. Going into the future the party need to make clear what it would do differently from the Democrats.

"We're going to be defined going into the 2012 presidential election by who we are and what we're for. It can't just be 'no.' Conservatives have to have thoughtful ideas about who we are and what we'll do."

And to formulate those ideas, the party needs people like Sen. Bob Bennett, Rove told a friendly audience of about 500 during a campaign appearance for Bennett at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

"He has a face for radio, let's admit it. Yet his colleagues admire the leadership and thoughtfulness that he has, so, look, I'm for him," Rove said. "Senator Bennett is one of those people who's going to be vital to the future of our party in getting us to think about what we're for and what it means."

Rove, who was in Utah for his 40th Olympus High School reunion, campaigned for Bennett, who finds himself in a contested Republican primary, facing a handful of challengers who complain that the three-term incumbent has lost touch with his conservative roots.

In the hour-and-a-half discussion, Rove touched on an array of topics, defending the Bush administration's record on spending, expressing outrage at the Obama administration's decision to consider prosecution of CIA interrogators for using enhanced methods, and told stories of his years working in the White House.

Rove said Bennett was a leader on entitlement reform - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - which has cost projections that Bennett has said are unsustainable. Bennett was a point man on the Bush administration's push to allow partial privitization of Social Security accounts.

Rove said that he supports Bennett's work on the Healthy Americans Act - the health care bill Bennett is co-sponsoring with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon - although he said it's "not exactly the bill that you or I would like each and every section."

Bennett said his bill is not a negotiating tool on health care, but it will be there as an alternative after Democratic reforms are blocked. "The No. 1 assignment in 2009 is to kill Obamacare," Bennett said.

Rove also defended the federal spending under the Bush administration, saying that, overall, nondefense discretionary spending grew more slowly than inflation during the last years of the Bush administration.

During the Bush years, overall discretionary spending grew at a rate in excess of 30 percent, according to the White House budget office.

"We spent, we spent dramatically more on national defense, we spent more on national security, we spent more on border security," Rove said.

Bennett's campaign manager and son, Jim Bennett, said the campaign also held a private reception for donors to the campaign, but it would likely only cover the costs of staging the event.

Bennett introduced Rove, seeking to dispel the popular caricature of the nefarious political operative.

"I know there are those who do not take kindly to Karl Rove and like to attack him," Bennett said. "My answer is: If you think he's a terrible man you don't know him. He's smart, he's funny he's compassionate. He's not the evil genius that some people in the media try to give him credit for."

Rove joked that he wished Bennett hadn't spoiled the mystique.

"I've worked hard for that reputation," Rove said. "I don't want them to think I'm a good guy."

Rove worked on the Senate campaign for Bennett's father, the late Sen. Wallace Bennett, in 1968 and Bennett said that, while neither remembers it, they likely met.

"If we can take any credit either way for having launched Karl Rove on his career, we will do that," Bennett said.

-----
Adam Jentleson
Communications Director, Progressive Media
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
ajentleson (AIM)
202-247-8614 (cell)

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