Rove Protege Faces Primary Challenger in Arkansas

Rove Republican Racket's anointed chosen son, Tim Griffin, Karl Rove's former hatchet man who looked for dirt on political opponents and discouraged minorities from voting during the Rove-Bush-Cheney Administration, was once viewed as a shoe in for the race for the Republican nomination of the Second Congressional District in Arkansas.

Karl Rove fired the local U.S. Attorney in Little Rock in 2006 to make way for young Griffin but he was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate and resigned months into his new assignment.

However, in his race to be a congressman, Griffin now faces some local grown, down to earth competition, Scott Wallace (pictured).  Even though Griffin has tried to cut his ties with Rove, voters and disgruntled Republicans aren't buying it.

The Arkansas Times opines:

Wallace has the support of a few prominent Arkansas Republicans, including Mike Huckabee, Gay White and John Paul Hammerschmidt, and his own insistence that he's more of an Arkansan than Griffin, whom he calls a Washington insider. It seems hardly a full quiver, but he may not need many arrows. “You have a choice between a Washington, D.C., insider and a hometown businessman who's created hundreds of jobs for Arkansans and been serving his community for a quarter of a century,” Wallace says. “He is the hand-picked establishment candidate, but we've done two different polls and we're leading in both.” Wallace also has a better chance to defeat the Democratic nominee in November, he says. “We don't have the D.C. baggage my opponent has. We won't have to deal with the issues the national Democratic Party is going to raise against him.”

Griffin Gives Rove the Boot

Tim Griffin, Karl Rove's protege and dirt digger, has given his former boss the boot.

During the Rove-Bush-Cheney years, Griffin (pictured) was a top researcher for Karl Rove at the White House and was one of the central figures in the controversial White House firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006.

Bud Cummins, the former U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Arkansas, was forced to resign to make way for young Griffin. As a sign of repudiation, Griffin was never comfirmed by the U.S. Senate for the post and was forced to resign in total disgrace.

This week, we found an interesting published interview with Griffin in The Arkansas Leader. Griffin is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the Second Congressional District of Arkansas.

When asked about his work for Karl Rove, Griffin gives Rove the boot and emphasizes he worked for the President of the United States, not Rove!  Here is the actual excerpt:

Is your connection to Karl Rove a positive or a negative?

I am a fifth-generation Arkansan, and my own person with my own views and values. The truth is I worked for the president at the White House for six months when Rove was deputy chief of staff.

Will Rove visit Arkansas to help your campaign?

No.

Griffin is now selling himself as a "common-sense conservative" and obviously understands that Karl Rove brings negative stigma to the campaign.

But there is no common sense to say he didn't work for Karl Rove, wasn't a protege of Karl Rove, and  wasn't a political bloodhound for the Rove Republican Racket.

"My own views and values?" For  heaven's sake, how lame does Griffin want to sound?

Worse, Griffin is disingenuously trying to sell himself as working exclusively for the President of the United States. We say, "So did Monica Lewinsky!"

Arkansas' Rove Disciple

In Arkansas, the true political intent of the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 can vividly be seen. In December of 2006, the Rove Republican Racket replaced U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins with the illustrious Tim Griffin.

And who is Mr. Griffin? None other than a Karl Rove disciple. He served in 2005 and 2006 in the Bush White House as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director in the Office of Political Affairs. In other words, he was Karl Rove's assistant!

The Arkansas Times posted this tidbit last week

Republicans go about these things very differently. A couple of years ago, when the Bush administration fired a gang of Republican U.S. attorneys considered insufficiently partisan, Bush and Karl Rove replaced them with people distinguished by their eagerness to do dirty work for the party. In Little Rock, Bud Cummins had to make way for Tim Griffin, a former Republican National Committee operative who gained fame, of a sort, in a Republican effort to keep blacks and Hispanics from voting.