Fox's Malkin Attacks Rove In Paid Speech Before Local GOP

Written by Oliver Willis

Published

In a paid speaking engagement before the Lane Country (Oregon) Republican Party, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin attacked fellow Fox News employee Karl Rove for running an “incumbency protection racket” and decried the treatment of conservative candidates “thrown under the bus by feckless Republicans.”

In an excerpt of her speech on February 22 posted to YouTube, Malkin referred to Rove's “Conservative Victory Project,” which is reportedly an attempt to promote more electable Republican candidates while attacking primary candidates who are unlikely to win races, as “an incumbency protection racket.”

She accused Rove of “badmouthing conservatives who've had a problem with big government Republican policies of which he is the primary architect” and “badmouthing good candidates who stepped up to the plate when no one else would, who were savaged by the media and then thrown under the bus by feckless Republicans.” She declared, “that's not the kind of Republican Party I want to belong to.”

Malkin blamed “big government Republicans” for helping to create the “seeds that were planted” that led to the Tea Party movement because “conservatives were sick of seeing their money squandered on people who did not believe in their principles.”

Other conservatives have recently panned Rove's new organization, describing them as “snakes in the GOP grass” and “the Bush insider team that helped lead to the rise of Barack Obama.” Fox hosts, contributors and frequent guests like Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, Liz Cheney and Mike Huckabee have also attacked Rove for this initiative.

Attendees at the dinner paid $95 per person to hear Malkin speak (lowered from the previous price of $125). According to a report in the Register-Guard, the Lane County Republican Party paid a deposit of $7,500 towards Malkin's speaking fee, and planned a “private reception” with Malkin for “45 to 50” people paying $500 each. On her personal website, Malkin notes that “my speaking fee is high.”

Media Matters previously documented that in 2012, over thirty Fox News hosts and contibutors - including Malkin and Rove -- campaigned for Republicans nationally and in more than forty states.