“Fox News should require Rove to answer to this charge... You can't be both a political player and an autonomous, disinterested analyst.” -- Warner Todd Huston

"[U]ntil this is resolved, it seems impossible to trust Rove as an objective analyst" -- Dan Riehl

Yes, the right-wing blogosphere has suddenly realized that Fox News' Karl Rove -- the architect of President George W. Bush's election and re-election -- may not be the best choice as an impartial, objective political analyst. The problem they have with Rove, though, is not that he favors Republicans over Democrats -- it's that he allegedly favored one Republican over another.

Last night, the right-wing news site The Freedomist (no, we hadn't heard of it either) reported:

Sources at the Christine O'Donnell victory party revealed to The Freedomist that in December of last year Karl Rove met with Tea Party leaders in Dover, Delaware trying to get them to cut a “deal” in which they would leave Mike Castle alone and NOT support O'Donnell.

The Freedomist has also learned that Rove was allegedly acting as an operative, although in what capacity it is not known, even as he is playing the role of a political analyst on Fox New in a fair and balanced way.

The Freedomist went on to “urge Fox News, in light of this information, to suspend Rove and investigate whether or not this is true and, if it is true, to fire Rove immediately for violating Fox's policy of being fair and balanced and for vilifying a Palin-endorsed conservative icon.”

The rest of the right-wing blogosphere has since jumped on The Freedomist's report. Riehl has urged Fox to “suspend Rove and investigate,” claiming that “it seems impossible to trust Rove as an objective analyst.” Huston commented:

Fox News should require Rove to answer to this charge. If he really did act as a helpmate for Rep. Mike Castle this damages Rove's veracity as an analyst. He has just made himself suspect. You can't be both a political player and an autonomous, disinterested analyst. Will Fox suspend Rove over this? They certainly should if he really did work to help Castle, in any case.

Ignored amid the right's flurry of ethical allegations has been the obvious point that Rove has never been an “autonomous, disinterested analyst,” despite Fox's attempts to brand him as such. Notably, Rove helped organize American Crossroads, a GOP slush fund intended to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat Democrats in the 2010 elections.

For some reason, the right hasn't complained that Rove's American Crossroads work made him a “political player” worthy of investigation or suspension. Perhaps that's because they, like Rove, are hacks.