"Can we have our $40,000 back?"

Our Etch-A-Sketch Boy was out on the circuit yesterday, at University of Iowa and, well, it didn't go so smoothly.

From KCRG-TV;

"It quickly became a hostile evening for Rove.

Protesters rallied together against Rove hours before he even took the stage.

"He's a traitor for outing a CIA agent and he's the one who really crafted the rhetoric for the invasion of Iraq," UI student Keri George said.

When Rove tried to start speaking, jeers from the crowd immediately interrupted him."

And this, from Think Progress;

During the lecture, Rove lashed out at hostile questioners, telling one man his comment showed “a simple, stupid mind” and chastised what he said were “stupid statements” from the audience. Rove also said that former Amb. Joseph Wilson “lied” about his 2002 trip to Niger and accused an audience member of “perpetuating libel” on the U.S. military for asking about the real number of deaths in the Iraq war:

Responding to a question about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s outing, Rove, seemingly joking, added:

"I haven’t been indicted yet, but I fully expect to be by the end of the year."

At the end of the talk, an audience member shouted at Rove: “Can we have our $40,000 back?” Rove replied: “No, you can’t.”

Seems to be shaping up for a Twilight Zone type of life of Herr Karl ... You remember, the episode where the degenerate criminal (Larry Blyden) dies and thinks he's gone to heaven, but he's really in hell (with the devil portrayed by the rotund Sebastian Cabot).

Well, we can only hope ...


Bonus Rovian Riffs

Oxymoron of the Day: Karl Rove at an Idea Festival

Top Ten Cloves: Things Markos Moulitsas Will Have To Look Out For When Working With Karl Rove At Newsweek

Developing Story! Rove Has Gone From “Bush’s Brain” To “Bush’s Drain”; White House In Crises, As Rove Takes Credit For North Korean Nuke Test; Sources Say ‘Bush’s Brain” Weary From Sinking Polls, Fundraising; Too Tired To Come Up With New October Surprise

Tough Slogging On The Revisionist Front ... Rove Having A Hard Time Working That Etch-A-Sketch

I'm sure there's some hardcore, dyed-to-the-bone, rightwingers and freakshow freaks, that are salivating for a book from the Smear Meister, Herr Karl Rove, to get the latest revisionist view of his handiwork, but it appears they have a longer wait;

Slow going for Rove memoir auction; Early reports had predicted a $3 million sale, but an auction for the Republican strategist's memoir has dragged on for a month.

“It's very, very slow,” says an executive at one of the few houses left in the bidding. Early reports had predicted a $3 million sale, but some insiders are wondering if Mr. Barnett has had trouble getting to that number. He declined to comment.

And the Turd Blossom isn't the only one having a problem, or two, with his Etch-A-Sketch;

His female counterpart, the doyenne of the Freakshow, plagiarist extraordinaire, Ann Coulter is having the air popped from her balloon.

Mr. Rove isn't the only conservative meeting a backlash. The latest tome by right-wing scribe Ann Coulter, If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans, hasn't caught fire with book buyers.

The title spent just four weeks on The New York Times' best-seller list—compared with 12 for her previous book—and has sold 97,000 copies in the last 10 weeks, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70% of the market.

Hmmm... Maybe Coulter has to out a covert CIA agent and Rove needs to don an eyepatch to start the climb out of their self-made muck, to win back the hearts and minds of the Dittoheads?

No doubt, we'll probably see a great deal of these two on the Fox News Network... Nothing a few softball smear sessions can't cure ...

Bonus Rovian Riffs

The Carpetbagger Report: Karl Rove’s transition from mythic to comic figure

War blame-shifting fall out - Nov. 30: If the White House knew that Karl Rove had lied on Charlie Rose, on national TV, about the war, why wouldn't they correct the record the very next day? MSNBC Political Analyst Lawrence O'Donnell talks to Keith Olbermann.

Ed Secretary Spellings On Turning Down Date With Rove: "He Was So Inept And Inartful"

Scott Horton: It Started in Texas: Karl Rove’s Political Prosecutions