Rove uses Blackwell event to slander Dems

Even though the GOP is in serious trouble with Ohio voters, Karl Rove thought that he could help turn things around by appearing on Wednesday at a fundraiser for Ohio's Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell.

Rove, as usual, invoked the "we're fighting them there so we won't fight them here" lie:

The 20-minute speech echoed Mr. Bush’s 2004campaign themes. He said Mr. Bush would not abandon the war and said ofterrorists to the audience: “Who thinks if we come home, that they’renot going to follow us?”

The event featured baked-brieappetizers, dark suits all around, and a minimum $1,000 entry fee. Itraised $165,000 for Mr. Blackwell, the Republican candidate forgovernor, who used the occasion to highlight his plan to lease the OhioTurnpike to private investors and to criticize his Democratic opponent,U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon.

A few dozen protestersoutside the club used Mr. Rove’s visit to denounce the Iraq war and Mr.Bush. Democrats used it to highlight the ongoing scandal surroundingformer Republican power broker Tom Noe, who pleaded guilty this summerto laundering money to Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign and who facescharges this fall of stealing millions of dollars that state officialsinvested in his rare coin ventures.

So the terrorists are going to get on the plane with our troops as they head back home?  This guy has absolutely zero foreign policy knowledge whatsoever.

If you recall, Blackwell, Ohio's current Secretary of State, chaired the 2004 Bush Campaign in the state of Ohio.  After the November election, he refused to conduct an investigation into the fact that 357,000 registered Democrats and one-fourth of all registered Ohio voters were prevented from casting their ballots.

As Senator Christopher Dodd said, Blackwell was partly to blame for manipulating the voter rolls:

''People waiting in line for twelve hours to cast their ballots, peoplenot being allowed to vote because they were in the wrong precinct -- itwas an outrage. In Ohio, you had a secretary of state who wasdetermined to guarantee a Republican outcome. I'm terriblydisheartened.''

Ohio voters want change.  Their current Governor, Bob Taft, has a 17% approval rating.  Go figure.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: Buckeye State Blog, Media Matters, Ohio2006, News Hounds, The Modern Esquire, Politics in Mudville, Blogdc.