When did Karl Rove make his famous prediction?

December 29, 2008 9:30 AM

So when did Karl Rove claim that we were on the verge of a 'permanent Republican majority?'

Should be a pretty standard google task, but all I can come up with is references to the claim - I'm looking for the original source, the moment where he first made that declaration, and hopefully the full context.

posted by Tomorrowful to Law & Government (5 answers total)

This is a reference to it.

"Nicholas Lemann's in-depth 2003 New Yorker profile of Karl Rove: "Rove is both a fox and a hedgehog. He is the detail man of all detail men, but he also makes a point of doing more long-term strategic planning than other political consultants. … Rove's main goal over the next year and a half is making George W. Bush what his father wasn't, a reelected President -- when I asked if he had mapped out the campaign, he said, 'Don't expect me to answer this question' -- he is too ambitious to want only that. The real prize is creating a Republican majority that would be as solid as, say, the Democratic coalition that Franklin Roosevelt created -- a majority that would last for a generation and that, as it played itself out over time, would wind up profoundly changing the relationship between citizen and state in this country." (The New Yorker, May 12, 2003)"
posted by SNWidget at 9:39 AM on December 29, 2008

I've found the phrase associated with Rove as early as April 2001. (The earliest use might have been Stephen A. Douglas's, on Christmas Day, 1860.)
posted by Knappster at 9:50 AM on December 29, 2008

Best answer: Rove claims he never said it:

"I never said permanent. Durable."
posted by EarBucket at 9:58 AM on December 29, 2008

Best answer: another 2001 "permanent republican majority" reference, no quote.

Also, at one point, google suggested to me: Did you mean: remove "a permanent republican majority" 2001. har har.

2004 rejection of "permanent":

MR. RUSSERT: You have said that you--your ultimate goal is a permanent Republican majority. What does that mean?

MR. ROVE: Well, first of all, there are no permanent majorities in American politics. They last for about 20 or 30 or 40 or, in the case of the Roosevelt coalition, 50 or 60 years and then they disappear. But would I like to see the Republican Party be the dominant party for whatever time history gives it the chance to be? You bet. I believe in the principles of the Republican Party. I believe in limited government and the right of the individual to make choices and in a strong national defense and in freedom and liberty as being the right of every person on the face of the Earth.

No surprise, but wikiquote doesn't have this quite, sourced or not.
posted by jepler at 1:03 PM on December 29, 2008

Response by poster: Hrumph! Oh well. Thanks for bursting my bubble... I guess I won't be adding a sourced quote to my facebook quotations block.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:55 AM on January 2, 2009