When Bush's Brain speaks, people listen. So naturally, they listened when kingmaker Karl Rove criticized Barack Obama after New Hampshire voters made Hillary Clinton prom queen.

Oddly, Rove's recent comments in The Wall Street Journal echoed some Bill Clinton made the day before the primary. Bill defended Hillary's record against Obama's style over substance.

Bill Clinton likened the rise of Obama to a fairy tale perpetrated by an incurious media.

Rove said Obama is articulate but prone to "trash-talking." The senator was called "lazy" for not putting the energy from the Iowa win to good use in New Hampshire. This is what's called "political capital" in Bushspeak.

Rove's word choices have some people wincing about possible race-based codes. Maybe they were. At least the Republican didn't say of Obama what another Democrat did. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, son of the elder statesman, said Obama couldn't "shuck and jive" his way to victory.

As they say in Flatbush, "Doo-dah, doo-dah!"

C'mon, if there is going to be a black president ever in America, people are going to have to get thicker skins. Besides, some discussions distract from others. At issue, for example, is whether Rove is right about Obama's missteps.

Another question: Shouldn't Democrats be suspicious of Rove's interest in their outcome and remarks by him that lend aid and comfort to the Clinton campaign?

There is no love lost between the loyal Bushies and Sen. Clinton. As first lady, she spoke of a vast right-wing conspiracy, which presumably included people like Rove. So why would Rove, in his scold of Obama, give a backhanded boost to the woman the GOP loves to hate and can't wait to burn at the stake in November?

Good question, if I say so myself.

Republicans want Clinton to get the nomination so they can roll out the vast right-wing dossier on her like a sacred scroll. They needn't look far because author Amanda B.

Carpenter wrote the book on that in 2006, and it was popular with the Conservative Book Club.

But wait a minute. Didn't Rove also advise Obama about how to beat Clinton in Iowa? Yes, he did. Writing in the Financial Times in December, Rove gave the Illinois senator unsolicited advice on how to win. Suggestions included that he make more noise about her electability and focus on how a Clinton ticket surely would lead to a Republican triumph. Rove is Republican, remember?

Rove listed several things Obama needed to do to take Iowa. In summary: Quit being a goody-two-shoes; act and dress less like a Chicago lawyer and more like a Chicago prizefighter; show some flaws; the "change theme" without specifics is empty rhetoric; admit to having less foreign policy experience than she does, which Rove says voters believe is true. Finally, stop behaving "like a vitamin-deficient Adlai Stevenson," look her in the eye at the debates and "do not give voters evidence you are as calculating as her."

Perhaps because Obama did not heed this advice, Rove decided to dress him down in the Journal.

The smackdown between the Calculating Clintons and the Chicago Changemaker will be bloody and vicious. The vitriol had become more inflamed when Bill Richardson threw in the towel after disappointing results in the Granite State.

When Richardson announced his exit, he made one last appeal for restraint and civility. This is good advice from a diplomat who also is genuinely concerned about his country and party.

Rove sees Democrats' mindless cannibalism as amusing and beneficial to the GOP. When Democrats argue about who did more for civil rights — LBJ or MLK? — you know things are off-message. What do you say when a prominent feminist, whose spouse said he can't make her "taller, younger or male" to be more likeable, chokes up the next day and wins pity votes? Democrats are heading for a train wreck.

Fortunately for them, so are Republicans. This looks like another job for Karl Rove.

Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (lokeman@kcstar.com) is a columnist for The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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