Maddow's Peculiar Logic: Rove Shouldn't Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Due to Own Divorce

MSNBC, "the place for politics" strikes again, this time with character assassination in the name of same-sex marriage.

On the Dec. 29 broadcast of "The Rachel Maddow Show," Maddow took aim at former Bush administration Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, now a Fox News contributor. She noted his prior opposition to same-sex marriage, which according to Maddow's citation of The Atlantic magazine, was done only to win elections.

"In the Karl Rove political playbook, more than one chapter covers the tactic of gay-baiting, which Mr. Rove has used to notorious electoral effect," Maddow said. "To quote a 2004 profile of Mr. Rove in The Atlantic magazine, quote, ‘One constant throughout his career is the prevalence of whisper campaigns against opponents. Often, a Rove campaign questions an opponent's sexual orientation.'"

And Maddow, still stuck in 2004 on Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., noted this was just politics as usual for Rove - to win elections.

"The terrifying threat of gay marriage and the whole sanctity of marriage theme is a political wedge to split the electorate in favor of Republicans is, of course, Karl Rove's modern political calling card, his bread and butter, his go-to campaign tactic," Maddow said. "On the Sunday after the 2004 presidential election, Mr. Rove promised voters a renewed effort to ban gay marriage."

Maddow played a clip from the Nov. 7, 2004 of NBC's "Meet the Press," which Rove renewed his call to define gay marriage - after Republicans had already won the election, negating the idea Rove's position was only that to win that particular campaign, as Maddow curiously claimed:

ROVE: Five thousand years of human history should not be overthrown by the acts of a few liberal judges or by the acts of a few local elected officials.

But Maddow deemed it necessary to pick at Rove's personal life and some of the details surrounding his recent divorce, which Rove understandably isn't advertising.

"It's in that context we note with sympathy and without rancor the ending of Mr. Rove's own second marriage," Maddow said. "An official family spokesperson, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, released the following statement today saying, quote, ‘Karl Rove and his wife, Darby, were granted a divorce last week. There will be no further comment and the family requests that its privacy be respected.'"

And therefore since Maddow disagreed with Rove's position on the issue, she deemed he should not expect privacy in his own personal matters since he opposed gay marriage back in 2004.

"With regard to the privacy of this matter, one comment - political figures who respect the sanctity of other people's relationships don't generally have to worry about having the sanctity of their own relationships politicized or questioned or brought up on the news," Maddow said. "On the other hand, someone who has made his political career out of perfecting the science of denigrating the sanctity of other people's relationships for political gain doesn't necessarily get that same respect. Glass houses."

What's even more curious about Maddow's decision to attack Rove is that he's no longer in a public office where he effect change on policy matters, including this particular issue.