On “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, former Bush advisor and “architect” Karl Rove ripped former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) for his hypercritical attacks on Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ). While shadowing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is head of the Republican Governors Association, Strickland said either Christie knew about the bridge scandal “and is lying, or he is the most inept, incompetent chief executive imaginable.”
Rove, rather than making the typical Obama comparison, instead opted to bring up the little-covered scandal that took place when Ted Strickland was the governor of Ohio. Someone from the governor’s office leaked personal, sensitive information about then-Obama critic “Joe the Plumber,” in an effort to derail his congressional campaign.
“I think the Democrats would be better off picking another voice against Chris Christie,” Karl Rove responded, teeing up his following comment.
“Let’s go back to 2008 and Joe the Plumber. Gov. Strickland’s own appointee, as head of the Employment Commission, was found to be accessing confidential government databases in order to find out confidential information — private information — about Joe The Plumber and leaking it to the press,” Rove noted.
“Now is Gov. Strickland, to adopt his standard, either incompetent or lying simply because it was his appointee who did these things?” Rove quipped. “Let’s be careful before throwing stones at Gov. Christie,” insinuating they are petrified the New Jersey governor would defeat Hillary Clinton, or whomever the Democratic presidential nominee turns out to be.
Former Gov. Ted Strickland was absolutely blindsided, stuttering and struggling to defend the leak and his own hypocrisy. When he couldn’t rebut Rove, he decided to try to lie by falsely claiming the never even happened and there was never a leak. Further, he ironically first answered by patting himself on the back over the appointee leaving his administration.
However, we know there was a leak and that it was a politically motivated abuse of power. It wasn’t even debatable, as Strickland’s “ums” and “uhs” told the tale, entirely.
Karl Rove repeatedly hammered him, pressing him on where the leak came from, with stutters drawing out of Strickland who was clearly caught of guard. “Where did the leak come from governor? Who from your office leaked that information about Joe the Plumber?” Rove questioned.
The former Ohio governor never did give a satisfactory answer for how his scandal differed from Gov. Christie’s scandal, so let me help him out.
Both the bridge closing at Ft. Lee and the leaking of a private citizen’s sensitive information are abuses of power. However, at the very least, New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie held those we know to be responsible accountable, and admitted it was in fact an abuse of power. Further, wrong or right, bridge authority is an actual legitimate police power, whereas whomever leaked the information about Joe the Plumber decided to act outside the bounds of government authority, altogether.
Further, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who was ousted in the 2010 elections by now-popular Gov. John Kasich because his people thought he was incompetent, never even admitted the scandal took place, and certainly made no attempt to publicly hold anyone accountable. Instead, he took the typical Democratic talking point position; rely on a complacent media to tell citizens to “move along, nothing to here.”
Strickland and the Democratic Party would do well to take the advice of Karl Rove, and find another mouthpiece hack to attack Gov. Christie because, he is a shameful hypocrite who has publicly shown himself to willing to do anything to get back what little relevance and power he once had, which came along with being a longtime Clinton “who know what” rider.
