Karl Rove has taken to chastising some of the Republican presidential candidates, including Rick Perry and Herman Cain, for going off the reservation (to the right) and making comments that would hurt them in the 2012 general election if they become the party’s nominee.
With Cain, the new GOP frontrunner, Rove, a traditional Republican operative, has a lot not to like. The candidate got the idea for hi 9-9-9 plan from a Cleveland accountant. It was pieced together by a small financial investment firm in West Bloomfield. And, after weeks of insisting that 9-9-9 would not hurt low-income families, Cain, during a visit to Detroit, flippantly changed it to 9-0-9 – no income taxes for the poor. (Maybe Cain had dug out his old “Let It Be” album by the Beatles for inspiration.)
But Rove, the GOP mastermind, must be especially infuriated by Cain’s latest penchant for making bizarre campaign ads on the Internet. The ad that features his chief of staff, Mark Block, smoking in a close-up camera shot has become a YouTube sensation.
Another ad, actually a 31/2 minute video, also featuring Block on screen is a spoof of old Western movies. The message is this: “There was a time in America when a man was a man, a horse was a horse, and a man on a horse was just a man on a horse… unless he carried yellow flowers.” Huh?
This ad is really nothing more than a macho appeal to older male voters, but it certainly could turn off young females in the electorate.
As controversial as the web videos are, the bigger problem for Cain is the checkered past of Block.
The Associated Press reported this week that Block has a troubled past that includes arrests for drunken driving and a suspension from campaigning in Wisconsin after accusations of breaking election rules.

In 1997, Block was accused of coordinating campaign activities between a state supreme court justice’s reelection campaign and a special-interest group that promoted school vouchers, in violation of campaign laws. As a result, he was fined $15,000 and banned from Wisonsin politics for three years.

Along the way, he has also been accused of dirty tricks and illegal voter suppression tactics in another campaign. Eventually, he took a job at Target, nearly had his home foreclosed on, was cited by the IRS for failure to pay taxes and started drinking – which led to his two DUI arrests.
Block says he’s sober now but I suspect he has made Rove, who is stewing down in Texas, decide that his best friend these days is Jack Daniels.
You can watch the videos here.