Rove and co. have a way of “pushing buttons” and manipulating everything,  and David Kuo (previously mentioned author of Tempting Faith) recognized this in Rove’s cynical manipulation of the “faith based initiative” with no apparent intention to actually implement or support such a thing (ie:  Rove to a faith based committee member who was pressing for some administrative support:”Just get me a f’ing faith-based thing, Got it?”).  Gore expresses his disgust with these attempts to “dress up” policies actually harmful to the supporters in order to “get their vote”……much like what is covered in the 2004 book: What’s the Matter With Kansas?”

The essential cruelty of Bush’s game is that he takes an astonishingly selfish and greedy collection of economic and political proposals and then cloaks them with a phony moral authority, thus misleading many Americans who have a deep and genuine desire to do good in the world. And in the process he convinces these Americans to lend unquestioning support for proposals that actually hurt their families and their communities.”
 (p. 82) — hat tip to :Adaptive Complexity: Al Gore’s Plea for Reason

The most blatant, seemingly politically suicidal move to date may be his intervention on behalf of Libby.  But true to their status as posers who operate solely on the basis of the interests of a particular elite,  none of “their own” will be subject to prison.  “Leaving the fine” intact is such a manipulative tool.  We all know that Libby has a “defense fund”.  He doesn’t pay a penny.  But Bush is the “decider”.