"Has Rove's thinking so infected the E-GOP that they simply no longer know how to get it done?"
Yes, welcome to the age of political Machiavellians...ideas are only discovered after a politician is elected and you see what they do, winning is all that matters to these jackasses! Power is their ultimate aphrodisiac and they are terminally hooked. So they will lie, cheat, steal, bribe, coerce, threaten, punish and whatever else they can think of to succeed.