Matthew in the middle?

By Libby

Julia at FDL has the latest takedown on 'middle of the road' Matthew Dowd, co-inventor with Karl Rove of wedge politics. You probably know by now he got a gig at ABC and his first column on religion and politics is a bit of a puzzle, but Julia makes small work of putting the pieces together into a portrait of deceit, or at best cluelessness.

Interestingly, when I was looking for something else yesterday I found a link to an earlier profile piece on the guy that I didn't get around to blogging about and I think it explains his skewed vision on religiosity. The man is blinded by his own collection of icons.

The house is filled with books, inspirational sayings -- "Happiness often sneaks in a door you did not open" -- and, by a quick count, more than 100 crosses. The Prayer of St. Francis -- "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love" -- is inscribed on a big painting above the fireplace.

I really can't imagine how his years with the GOP could have been more antethical to that sentiment, but that's not why I saved the link. This one line struck me as the perfect summation of how wedge politics changed the end game inside the Beltway.

The GOP congressional gains in 2002 didn't help, Dowd said.

"Increasing Republican majorities in both houses," he said, "became a disincentive for consensus building."

He says that as if he has no responsibility for taking the incentive out of consensus. As if this was some unexpected supernatural phenomenon and not the direct result of his own work. That was his job, to deliver absolute power. Yet, he would have us believe that by 04, he, who was closest to the inner workings, didn't recognize the danger signs that his little prince was running amok? Sardonic laughter. How stupid does he think we would believe he is?

But by all means, let's call him a centrist instead of a professional sellout and give him a megaphone on a mainstream outlet. I guess within an establishment media that touts Joe Klein as a liberal, it makes sense.