Rove Group Upsets Tea Party’s Apple Cart
Rove’s seed money sparks ire of grass-roots GOP
Martha T. Moore and Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY
February 14, 2013
The GOP strategist’s plan to promote “electable” candidates has the party’s most conservative wing defending their ideological turf, as Republicans map out how to recover from losses in 2012.
Karl Rove has spent a week explaining himself – to Republicans.
Since he announced plans Feb. 4 to spend money in Republican congressional primaries to promote “electable” candidates, Rove has been trying to put out a grass-roots blaze that has conservative activists crying “civil war” with establishment Republicans.
The Conservative Victory Project — a new offshoot of the political non-profits co-founded by Rove called Crossroads — says it wants to avoid a repeat of 2012 embarrassments, when GOP candidates lost Senate elections in Indiana and Missouri after they made voter-alienating comments about rape.