Why Karl Rove Is Smiling Today

Karl Rove, fresh from outraging Democrats with his remarks about Hillary Clinton’s health, was on Fox News last night, and, once again, he was looking pretty happy with himself. As it became clear that establishment Republicans—i.e., those supported by Rove and his big Super PAC—had bested their Tea Party-affiliated rivals in a number of key G.O.P. primaries, Rove flashed his gnashers and told Megyn Kelly: “The reason Republican candidates are winning is because they are uniting the party.”

Presumably, Rove wasn’t talking about Mitch McConnell, the lugubrious Senate minority leader, who does a good job of uniting the Democratic Party but is about as popular among G.O.P. activists as an outbreak of measles. Still, McConnell was one of last night’s big winners. Having been challenged by a strident businessman, Matt Bevin, who attacked him as a “pretend conservative” and attracted a lot of Tea Party support, McConnell won the primary handily. With almost all of the vote counted, he was was leading Bevin by sixty per cent to thirty-six per cent.

...read more