"Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove"
by Paul Alexander.
Hmmm....I like that title, especially the second part.
Below is ..... live blog semi-verbatim transcription of a radio interview with the author. . . . . .
I tuned in and my ears perked up when they were talking about how much Newt Gingrich and other Republicans hate Karl Rove because his activities with Bush Administration have been such a disaster for the Republican Party's reputation that it is causing Republicans to lose elections around the country ....
More below the fold. . . .
The interview was already in progress when I began transcribing, but links should fill in the gaps. If you want to listen to the full interview online, it will be available in a few hours at:
http://www.wnyc.org/...
"Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove"
About the Author:
PAUL ALEXANDER is a former reporter for Time magazine and has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, New York, The Village Voice, and The Guardian. He is the author of Man of the People: The Life of John McCain as well as biographies of Sylvia Plath, J.D. Salinger, and James Dean.
http://www.powells.com/...
-----INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR PAUL ALEXANDER--------. . . .
Rove's history.
Rove had had a series of failures by 1993... involved in a number of elections in Texas, had some successes, but also a series of failures. Fired by Bush Sr. for leaking a story about Mosbacher to Novak [*see footnote below]....
In 1986 Rove was working for a Republican candidate in Texas and was worried about the upcoming debate (the other candidate was very good)... Big news story appeared: a bug was found in Rove's office (!), supposedly planted by the opposition(!) ..... FBI got involved in investigating
from Rove's wikipedia page:
"The police and FBI investigated and discovered that the bug's battery was so small that it needed to be changed every few hours, and the investigation was dropped. Critics, including other Republican operatives, suspected Rove had bugged his own office to garner sympathy votes in the close governor's race"
Smoking guns?...
Smoking guns are rarely connected with Rove. But, people who worked closely with Rove -- are they smoking guns? Some of them are now talking, some of them had to give testimony under oath... Some stories are brewing and we might get to the Karl Rove smoking guns.
Rove tactics.
(Smears, whisper campaigns using surrogates.)
Texas Governor Ann Richards was smeared for putting too many openly gay people in her administration, rumors were spread that she was a lesbian. She was actually a grandmother, single woman.......but not a lesbian [I sez: 'not that there's anything wrong with that']
Did Rove move into The Governor's Mansion the way he later moved into The White House?
No. When George W. Bush won the election for governor, Rove kept his business firm going, Karl Rove & Company...But....His office was very near the governor's mansion. Rove went to any meeting he wanted there. George W. Bush made Rove sell his business so there would be no conflict when he ran for president. [**footnote about the business and who bought it]
The first thing Bush did as Governor of Texas was to reach across the aisle and become friendly with Democrats. The Texas governorship is a weak position, almost ceremonial. The legislature only meets every other year.
It was easy for Bush to be popular as governor in Texas.
Master of retail politics --
10 minute speech, always on message, and two hours of shaking hands. Talking points like "compassionate conservative" based on the image that Rove had crafted for Bush in Texas.
2000 Republican presidential primary...
Smear campaign against McCain saturated the media -- there is pretty solid evidence of Rove involvement. (author says he was covering the McCain campaign at the time and saw anti-McCain TV ads everywhere in South Carolina..... theme = McCain sold out the country when prisoner in Vietnam, don't vote for him; No pro-Bush ads, nothing touting why Bush is better candidate.......Also the McCain has a black baby "push poll" smear campaign. (Good article about that campaign and Bush-Rove shocking dirty tricks:)
http://www.commondreams.org/...
Rove's Missteps?
Yes. In 2000 Rove spent millions in states that Bush had no chance of winning, and sent him to states in the last 72 hours where he also had no chance of winning. Rove stated it was to increase the popular vote. Author says it was Rove's arrogance and hubris, imagining that Bush could get much higher numbers.
The 2000 Florida recount.
Rove probably not involved; instead, he was so shocked that Bush didn't get the popular vote... that the election was so close... Rove went into free fall. Plus, it took a man of the stature of (former Secretary of State) James Baker to take charge of the Florida recount effort.
Iraq war. Was Rove involved?
Mostly Cheney territory but (snarky tone of voice?) Rove would like anything that would make W. more popular.
( For more on the subject:)
http://www.juancole.com/...
"Permanent Campaign Culture"
Since even before the 2000 Presidential campaign, Rove's goal was to come to Washington and establish a permanent Republican majority... at least, 'permanent' = from 30 to 50 years. Author says permanent and majority are two words that don't go together in a democracy and... he questions: What in your psyche would make you WANT to create a permanent majority?
Making decisions that were not policy-based but politics-based -- that's what led to this failed administration. The "permanent campaign culture," as described in Scott McClellan's recent book.
September 11?
Rove was at the president's side during the whole thing. No one did anything that day, including Rove. Rove could have whispered in the president's ear to end the classroom reading, for example. But he didn't.
Hurricane Katrina
The Administration's view of the storm was that it wasn't going to be such a big deal. Bush kept his normal schedule, gave "stay the course in Iraq" speeches on Monday ... but by late Tuesday ... Rove realized the political damage that had been done by Bush not being more pro-active. Rove came up with a cockamamie scheme (to deflect criticism of Bush): Blame Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco... Make an issue about federalizing Louisiana National Guard...... this created a bigger delay in getting help. (I sez....snopes has something mighty interesting ... scroll down to
erroneous statement by an unnamed Bush administration official
http://www.snopes.com/...
)
Rove resigns.
By the summer of 2007 Rove was connected with so many scandals that Bush asked him to leave... The story was that he was going to spend more time with his family, which he doesn't seem to have done. Instead he seems to be on Fox television all the time. (snarky tone of voice).
More about the scandals. Abramoff, etc.:
http://www.rollingstone.com/...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Ongoing --
Rove may be held in contempt of Congress if he doesn't appear in early July. He might plead that he forgot that he had leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to a national magazine. (author said this with snarky tone of voice). Fitzgerald can go back and look at what Rove said to the grand jury, now that e-mail evidence has surfaced.
" a July 2003 email Rove sent to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley proved Rove was far more involved in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson, and the campaign to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, than he had let on during interviews with federal investigators and in testimony before a federal grand jury."
http://www.truthout.org/...
My Own Conclusions:
- Rove and Bush have really been given a pass! A MIGHTY pass!!
Action Links for remedy:
The Nation action and media links:
http://capwiz.com/...
http://www.stopbigmedia.com
http://mediamatters.org/
http://www.speaker.gov/...
- Rove's mentor, Lee Atwater, apologized before he died.
Pathological characters, both of them. Narcissism. Immune to criticism, immune to self-examination.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Bill Moyers video.
A deadly disease shows Lee Atwater the errors of his dirty, selfish Republican tactics. He bemoans America's "tumor of the soul."
Long article about Atwater's brain tumor's effect on him:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
"Where did I go wrong?" Lee asked.
"I think your head and your heart are out of alignment," said Trout. He had used his head to control, manipulate others throughout his life, she said, and he had set his heart aside. He had no instrument to determine whether his actions were for the highest good -- and he knew it. Lee was a disconnected man.
-------------- Footnotes.
BOOK REVIEWS:
http://www.buzzflash.com/...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/...
With anti-Rove quotations from Republicans:
http://www.examiner.com/...
Article with video clip:
http://rawstory.com/...
* Mosbacher. Rove.
In 1992, "Sources close to the former president George H.W. Bush say Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted" ( Esquire Magazine, January 2003). As Novak provided some evidence of Rove's motive in his column describing former senator Phil Gramm's later firing of Mosbacher: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher". Mosbacher maintains that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
**Karl Rove & Company.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/...
http://www.sourcewatch.org/...
More at:
The Guardian. 2004 article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
At high school in Utah, Rove was known as a nerd and a motor-mouth, unpopular but irrepressibly opinionated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
P.S. This diary was created partly by typing, partly using dictation software. Please excuse any misrecognized words or phrases I didn't catch in proofreading.