Fox News political analyst Karl Rove, whose Crossroads political groups are currently facing withering criticism over their failure to leverage several hundred million dollars into tangible electoral success, is apparently shifting strategies from defeating Democratic politicians to stopping them from implementing their policies.
The super PAC American Crossroads and its associated nonprofit Crossroads GPS, groups which Rove co-founded and advises, are now “gearing up for a lobbying and advertising campaign focused on budget, energy and health care issues, starting with the looming fiscal cliff,” according to a report in Roll Call.
The announcement highlights what could be an ongoing conflict of interest for Rove in his role as a Wall Street Journal columnist and a Fox News political analyst.
Throughout the election, the Journal and Fox News both struggled with disclosing Rove's conflict of interest in offering his “analysis” of an election his political groups were actively trying to influence. The farcical nature of Rove's dual role as both a political “analyst” and an active participant in the elections came to a head in the now-infamous incident on election night, when Rove objected to his own network calling Ohio for President Obama.
During that segment, Fox anchor Megyn Kelly asked Rove (in a question he should have been asked on-air years before this) whether his analysis was “just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better.” Going forward, the same question should apply to Rove's “analysis” of the various policy issues on which Crossroads intends to lobby.