Notes from the Karl Rove visit

Here are notes from the Karl Rove Beaverton visist yesterday. We offer you the “Best of”:

New taxes from congress
– Rove said Democrats are proposing the largest tax increase in US history, roughly $400 billion in the next five years. 26 million businesses would see their taxes go up. $500 more in taxes for every kid you have. The marriage tax penalty will go up. Capital gains up by 30%. The death tax will go up, for which Rove said mockingly, at least you won’t have to pay it when you are dead.

Iraq war
– Rove commented that congress’ war resolution is “mandating failure” and dangerously delaying troop requests.
– That the Democrat Majority is listening to the generals in Washington, rather than the real generals in the field.
– There is $20 billion in pork in the Iraq bill including millions for peanut storage. The bill includes veterans funding, but even the American Legion and the VFW have publicly stated that they do not want these unrelated veteran spending projects to be stuck in the war bill.
– Rove said a bill to fund our troops should not be an excuse to bribe congressmen with pork.

On winning elections
-Rove joked that if he just took all of Dan Lavey’s advice (local political consultant) Bush might have won Oregon.
– Mentioned that Bush won despite his collective campaigns being outspent by John Kerry’s campaigns by $124 million.
– 25% more people voted for Bush in 2004 than in 2000.
– Out of 24 states that officially record party registration (Many states do it differently than Oregon), 16 of those 24 showed more people registering more new Republican voters than Democrat.

War on terror
– Rove urged everyone to go and buy the book “Messages to the world” which is a collection of letters from Osama Bin Laden. Rove said reading it is like reading Mein Kampf and it will awake you to the uncompromising brutality of our enemies.

On the economy
Rove recounted that Bush excelled at getting us out of the recession. Stating that that the US created more jobs than Europe and Japan combined. Our economy grew 20% bigger in three years. The US cut the deficit in half and in three years earlier than expected.

On his dancing:
Rove mentioned that he was suckered into rap dancing by his friends. Saying that he is Norwegian, and he didn’t even dance at his own wedding. Many years from now he said he will be forgotten but his lasting image will be of him dancing on YouTube.com.

Last question
At Rove’s exit, Oregonian reporter, Harry Esteve, bellowed out a question from afar about the latest email issue on Rove which has been in the headlines. It was a missed opportunity, and it would have been interesting to see the response.

Final note
Finally, the Rove event wouldn’t be complete without protesters outside, and yes protesters with “F*** Bush” signs. I guess saying “stop Bush” is not good enough, but rather saying “F***” somehow makes men, women and children passing by say to themselves “I always change my views on the president on who is willing to swear the most. That lovely protester had me at F**** (to quote Jerry Mcquire)”