Rove says Limbaugh took him ‘out of context’ on Tea Party

Republican strategist Karl Rove accused radio host Rush Limbaugh of misrepresenting a remark he made about the Tea Party movement during an interview Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“What he took out of context was a comment I made in an interview with a hostile German reporter in which I said the Tea Party’s not sophisticated,” Rove said.

Rove said his definition of sophistication is “pretentiously or superficially wise.” Limbaugh, remarking on Rove’s comment, had said establishment Republicans see the Tea Party movement as a threat.

Rove went on to explain that he sees Tea Party activists as unaccustomed to politics.

“These are not people who are skilled in the ways of Washington. They don’t want to be,” he said.

“They’re ordinary Americans from Main Street America who have created a massive grass-roots effort driven by a sentiment in this country — even more important than the groups is the sentiment that’s driving it — that the government is on a terribly dangerous course of spending too much money, running up too much deficit and taking up too much control of our lives with things like Obamacare,” he said.

Limbaugh had raised Rove’s Tea Party remarks Wednesday.

“Nobody who makes a living generating political support, generating political donations, nobody in that business can point to the Tea Party and say, ‘I did it.’ So it’s a threat,” Limbaugh said.

During his Sunday interview, Rove went on to commend Limbaugh for “educating people about Obamacare” and the deficit.