Roger Ailes Republican Party Puppetmaster?

Permit me to preface this load of smug crap with liberal Newsweek "Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief" and MSNBC talking head hack Howard Fineman's assertion while pimping his book on Stephen Colbert's show a year ago that it is possible to "sail across the country." The Mayflower sailing across the country? That's what Howard said.

Howard Fineman

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Five years ago Howard Fineman whined that the Mainstream Media is being "destroyed" by "Fox's canny Roger Ailes." Fineman throws in a couple of other reasons besides Ailes.

May I add the Media Obsession over Howard's hair? Last year Fineman stopped dyeing his hair and the Internet went batshit. Politico's Shenanigans gossipista: Perfect strangers, we hear, go up and talk to him about it. If you Google “Howard Fineman” and “hair,” 30,500 hits pop up. (HF and “intellect” gets 3,680; HF and “politics” gets more than 530,000.)
So here's Finemann getting media buzz on a Monday holiday with his observation (after forcing himself to watch Fox News) that Roger Ailes is the defacto head of the Republican party:

"Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum—which is why God created Roger Ailes. The president of Fox News is, by default, the closest thing there is to a kingmaker in Anti-Obama America. And that, in turn, makes him the de facto leader of the GOP. In a relentless (and spectacularly successful) hunt for cable ratings, Ailes has given invaluable publicity to the tea partiers, furnished tryout platforms to GOP candidates, and trained a fire hose of populist anger at the president and his allies in Congress. While Beltway Republicans wring their hands or write their tracts, Ailes has worked the countryside, using his feel for Main Street resentment to attract and give voice to this year's angriest—and most powerful—voter-viewers: those who hate the Feds, the Fed, and the Ivy League. It was Ailes who put the "party" in the tea parties by giving them a round-the-clock national stage. Next month Fox will have priority access to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville."

The self-congratulatory Fineman on Ailes annointing Sarah Palin paid Fox News contributor: "He's essentially giving her a second tryout in the Bigs, while simultaneously using her to generate colossal ratings. Palin supporters were congratulating themselves last week, but she had better enjoy the ride while she can. Her marathon session with Beck was a chiffon of ignorance, hairstyling, egotism, and shtik. Palin had a moment of panic when Beck asked her, in the friendliest of ways, to name her favorite Founding Father. "All of them," she said nervously. Prompted by Beck, she settled on George Washington."

Didn't MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hostess Mika Brzezinski recently claim her favorite Founding Father is Abraham Lincoln?

Fineman is fingering Ailes as A) payback to Obama's WH henchmen who took Howard to the woodshed and threatened him after Fineman's bomb criticizing the prez last year for his self-serving I-I-I, Me-Me-Me vapid TV appearances. B), Fineman hoped his "friend" Roger would steal him away from low-rated MSNBC and promote him as Fox's token liberal. Fineman meant this as a slap against McCain for not vetting Sarah Palin. But one could take it another way: "Ailes doesn't give anyone a coveted spot on his ticket without a long, thorough vetting." C) Howard's pal Keith Olbermann put him up to it. Or D) reverse schadenfreude over last Sunday's NYT's David Carr/Tim Arango Ailes-threatened-to-quit-if-Murdoch-backed-Obama piece in which Rupert Murdoch's own son-in-law Matthew Freud (think he needs a shrink?) fingered Roger as a sick weirdo.

Howard went off the Obama reservation last September when his phony tarty laughable tell-tale brown-red hair grew out. Conservative media were astounded by liberal Howard's Obama dart.

I would conjur a tainted hair dye vast right-wing conspiracy theory - like the secret Coca-Cola formula or Kentucky Fried Chicken's recipe of seven herbs and spices locked in a hermetically sealed vault - affecting the part of the brain that rules political persuasion, but Clairol - a Stamford, Connecticut-based company - was founded by the Gelb family. Heir and major George Bush donor Bruce Gelb served as Bush 41's USIA head in 1989-90. Gelb was so incompetent he fell up to ambassador to Barbados (I think it was Barbados).