Humongous, gargantuan, pretty darn massive instance of hyperbole.

Two gents have just published a book about Karl Rove's "Master Plan" for absolute power.^[1] Absolute power, mind you. Which is so, like, on the brink of success that the Repubs may lose control of the House in November.

Some master plan.

We might get around to reading this book when it hits the dollar table at KMart. Until that happy moment, however, we thought it would be interesting to read some reviews of it on Amazon. Publishers Weekly's^[2] says the book shows how Mr. Rove sought "to engineer nothing less than the assertion of a long-term Republican hegemony and the complete dismantling of the Democratic Party." According to PW, the Jovian Rovian objective was "a complete realignment of American politics" which began to derail with:

• the failure of Bush's Social Security reform plan (no doubt helped along by the as-yet-undismantled Democrat Party);
• the Bushian response to Hurricane Katrina;
• the nomination of Harriet Miers; and
• the "implication of" Mr. Rove in the leak of CIA employee Valerie Plame's identity.

So far as we know, the only people within a 25-mile radius of Washington, DC, who haven't been "implicated" in the Plame outing are mid-level managers of area Starbucks.

But, . . . we grant the point. "Implicating" anyone in Washington is the media equivalent of conclusively branding them as a lying, low-down, vicious, guilty, mothertrucking weasel, which unhappy happening would necessitate putting plans to take over even the condo association on indefinite hold.

Notwithstanding, there seems to be some slight disconnect between the masterful plotting needed to realign American politics and the ineptness of the decision to nominate such a nice but unsuited lady for a slot on the Supreme Court. Maybe it's just we. To the book's authors a peek at the Rovian "to do" list on this point would surely have revealed the entry, "Master Plan Objective III -- Take over judicial branch: Bush nominate Harriet Miers stat."

Furthermore, if the authors think the failure of one policy initiative like Social Security reform and such events as those listed just above are enough to derail this Master Plan you gotta axe what kind of a plan might it be? "Bad news, Mr. Bush! Our plans for absolute power are in the tank over that Miers nomination and the wide publicity given to the metaphysical, nuanced vagaries of the Valerie Plame affair."

The American Library Association's "Booklist" review^[3] says that Mr. Moore and Mr. Slater show Mr. Rove as a person "bent on maintaining Republican political dominance for generations to come." Apparently the fact that a political adviser has a plan for winning elections for his party that is a long-term plan is a matter of some note to these observers. We ourselves note the complete absence of long-term planning on the part of The Yaaaargh Man, Howard Dean over at the DNC, as evidenced by the Dems fixation on the ho hum issues of:

• Katrinagate, the means by which Bush intended to dechoclify destroy life in New Orleans as we know it;
• Bush's supposed lies about WMD in Iraq; and
• Republican Senator Rick Santorum's regular employment of a babysitter who is the cousin of Jack Abramoff's plumber's up-line Shacklee distributor.

All this breathless, stratospherical, Chicken Little haruspicy is enough to wear a body plumb OUT!

For a more relaxing and more balanced view . . . what better book to pick up than Sidney Blumenthal's How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime?

Hat tip to Hatless in Hattiesburg for the "Bush lied" deal.

Notes
^[1] The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power. By James Moore and Wayne Slater.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.