Karl Rove was back on Fox News last night appearing on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” It was Rove’s first appearance on the channel in 27 days. Last week, New York Magazine reported that Rove and Dick Morris had been benched. Fox News confirmed the lack of appearances was to send the message “the election is over.”

Rove was on with his election night partner Joe Trippi.  Said Baier: “We thought it worked in the electoral map. We thought: ‘the fiscal cliff, get them in a room and try to solve this thing.’ Gentleman, welcome back.”

New York Mag’s Frank Rich apparently didn’t see the segment. A few hours later, as guest on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Rich was talking about the Rupert Murdoch empire (which also came up later on “The Colbert Report” — video below) and said of Rove, “he’s been benched at the moment at Fox News.”