NY Times' Frank Rich deciphers 'The Rove Da Vinci Code'

RAW STORYPublished: Saturday May 20, 2006

The marketing strategy behind the movie The Da Vinci Code is "a perfect Hollywood metaphor for the American political culture of our day," writes Frank Rich in his column slated for Sunday's New York Times, RAW STORY has found.

"Politicians, particularly but not exclusively in the Karl Rove camp, seem to believe that voters of 'faith' are suckers who can be lured into the big tent and then abandoned once their votes and campaign cash have been pocketed by the party for secular profit," Rich writes.
Excerpts from Rich's column The Rove Da Vinci Code:
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The Machiavellian mission for the hit-deprived Sony studio was to co-opt conservative religious critics who might depress turnout for a $125-million-plus thriller portraying the Roman Catholic Church as a fraud. To this end, as The New Yorker reported, Sony hired a bevy of PR consultants, including a faith-based flack whose Christian Rolodex previously helped sell inspirational testaments to Hollywood spirituality like "Bruce Almighty" and "Christmas With the Kranks."
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But for all these betrayals, Dobson and Co. won't desert the Republicans come Election Day. If Rove steps up his usual gay-baiting late in the campaign, as is his wont, maybe the turnout of those on the hard-core right will eke out a victory for the party that double-crossed them not just on cultural issues but also on secular conservative principles (like fiscal responsibility and immigration-law enforcement). If so, they'll promptly be Da Vinci'd yet again.
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Like the Bush era, the cynical Rove strategy of exploiting faith-based voters may be nearing its end. For proof, just take a look at the most craven figure in American politics: the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist. To flatter the far right, this Harvard-trained surgeon misdiagnosed Terri Schiavo's vegetative state from the Senate floor, and justified abstinence-only sex education in AIDS prevention by telling ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he didn't know for certain that tears and sweat couldn't transmit HIV. But increasingly it's not only liberals who see through him. One of his latest stunts, a proposed $100 gas-tax rebate, provoked Rush Limbaugh to condemn him for "treating us like we're a bunch of whores."
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TIMES SELECT SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ FULL RICH COLUMN HERE