Fox News Dumps Morris, Renews Rove

Dick Morris is gone from Fox News.  Meanwhile, Karl Rove has been given a new multiyear contract.  But why?

A Fox News spokesman said only that the network chose not to renew Morris' contract.  It's not hard to figure out why.  Morris was glaringly wrong on the outcome of the 2012 presidential contest, predicting often and loudly that Mitt Romney would win in a romp.  Funny thing is that Karl Rove was conspicuously wrong about the presidential results, too.  Rove just wasn't as vociferous as Morris, except on Election Night.  Even respected conservative elections analyst and commentator Michael Barone called the presidential sweepstakes for Romney.  Barone is a Fox News contributor. 

Rove is currently involved in a dust up with conservatives over his new PAC, the oddly named Conservative Victory Project.  Oddly named because the project isn't designed to elect more conservatives to the U.S. Senate (the Senate is the focus of the PAC's efforts).  Per the New York Times:

The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races.

Those other organizations would include tea parties and the Club for Growth, among other "far-right" groups. 

In a blistering commentary at RedState, Erick Erickson writes about Rove's latest venture:

It is interesting though. The people who brought us No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, TARP, the GM bailout, Harriet Miers, etc., etc., etc. are really hacked off that people have been rejecting them. In 2012, about the only successful Republican candidates were the ones who directly rejected the legacy of these people.

Interesting it is.  And in a brilliant analysis of Rove's and GOP high rollers' efforts to install more establishment Republicans in the U.S. Senate and fend off conservatives, Jeffrey Lord writes:

Over at Redstate, the name chosen for the Rove group was called "Orwellian" - and it was pointed out that Rove's American Crossroads group had supported all manner of GOP moderates who, as with Akin and Mourdock, went down to defeat last year - without causing any seeming concern on Rove's part. Conservative writer Jen Kuznicki called for an outright rejection of what she called Rove's "divisive tactics," saying

"We just want to win," is a mantra repeated by political operatives, who then tell us what is needed to win. But they lose. It is time enough to look at results and reasons for those losses, and mostly, it is because the truth is secondary to political expedience.

There were constant reminders of anti-Establishment backed candidacies that succeeded - Mike Lee in Utah, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Ted Cruz in Texas, Marco Rubio in Florida, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.

So Karl Rove called the 2012 presidential election as wrong as did Dick Morris but keeps his contract at Fox News.  Good for him.  When it comes to pay checks, survival is the name of the game.  But picking fights with the GOP's conservative base?  Who's going to fire Rove for that faux pas?