Axelrod vs. Rove: Deficits for the record

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Ever since former President George W. Bush’s record budget deficit became President Barack Obama’s record deficit, the finger-pointing in Washington has intensified. Bush had inherited an annual budget surplus from former President Clinton in excess of $200 billion at the start of the Bush years. Then Bush ran up a new record deficit, in excess of $400 billion. Obama inherited a new record deficit from Bush, in excess of $1 trillion. (It bears reminding that all three presidents accomplished all this with the help of Congress, which appropriates the money and levies the taxes.) Karl Rove, the ‘architect’’ of Bush’s election campaigns, has taken the Obama administration to task for its spending. David Axelrod, the chief political advisor to Obama, has a response for Rove, who was among a panel of experts commenting in the Washington Post last week. Today, Axelrod offers his own Op-Ed in the Post. They’re talking about the midterm elections here: ‘Congressional Democrats can’t reverse their midterm fortunes by trying to pass itsy-bitsy pieces of insignificant but popular legislation. Voters will stay fixated on their existing mistakes,’’ Rove writes of 2010. ‘Good luck: You made the mess.’’ ‘Rove has some impressive campaign victories to his credit,’’ Axelrod replies. ‘But given the shape in which the last administration left this country, I’m not sure I would solicit his advice.’’ The Swamp’s Bulldog edition has arrived. Read Friday’s Op-ed from Axelrod, and with it the Rovian tract that prompted it. --Mark Silva