The political parties aren't ... quite dead
If you accept the notion that money has too much influence in politics, consider GOP strategist Karl Rove, who had visions of creating a "permanent Republican majority." Turns out that the all-powerful Rove was incapable of buying a few Senate seats. The two independent political groups he spearheaded, American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, spent somewhere between $176 million and $300 million backing Mitt Romney and a targeted group of Senate and House candidates. What did he and his donors get for their money? Not much. We know Romney lost. But so did 10 of the 12 Senate candidates and four of the nine House contenders the Rove groups backed. Bloomberg News reported . Which brings me to John Hood's column today reviewing (among other things) the tenor of the presidential campaign. It included this gem: Because the Republicans relied heavily on independent expenditures to make up for President Obama’s advantage in hard money, they we...