ABOUT TIME SOMEBODY SAID IT: From Eric Alterman's "Altercation" blog -- "It's time to stop calling Karl Rove a genius. He is a second-rate hack. He is about to become a two-time loser. I knew Rove, Matthew Dowd, and Mark McKinnon when we were all back in Austin in the 1980s and 1990s. Dowd and McKinnon were big Democrats then, McKinnon particularly liberal. None of them were considered 'geniuses' back then. In fact, Dowd was pretty much a dependable functionary who didn't make much of a difference for Lloyd Bentsen, Ann Richards, and other Dems he worked for. McKinnon did clever work back then when he was a long-haired, guitar-playing liberal. But this 'Wolves' thing? Come on, Mark. Rove gets far more credit than he deserves. Too many pundits conflate brilliance with ruthlessness. Rove will say or do anything to destroy his opponent. But that's not genius. Having your soul removed does not increase the power of your brain. Let's face it: Rove lost a winnable election in 2000 and is about to lose another one with an incumbent during a war. I hope that after Tuesday we see the last of Rove-worship."