Karl Rove—a.k.a. “Turd Blossom,” “Boy
Genius,” “The Architect,” “Bush’s
Brain,” and “2004 Most Fascinating Person of the Year” (according
to Barbara Walters) —is widely regarded as one of the key
reasons George W. Bush occupies the White House today. His success
at motivating the Christian Right base of the Republican Party
during Bush’s first term helped ensure Bush’s victory
last November.
The 2004 election was just the latest in a string of successes
for the Republican political strategist. A recent PBS Frontline
documentary about Rove contends that the election was the crowning
achievement in a 30-year plan Rove had devised to make the Republican
Party the permanent majority party in the United States. (8) Thirty-year
plan or no, Rove has been behind a number of key political campaigns
that have invariably resulted in Democratic defeats, beginning
with his days in Texas when he worked on George H. W. Bush’s
vice presidential candidacy.
Rove is credited with having helped turn what was once a staunchly
Democratic state into a key Republican stronghold, a turn around
that climaxed with the victory of George W. Bush over the popular
Democratic governor, Ann Richards, in 1995. The Texas governor’s
mansion quickly turned into a staging ground for the Bush-Rove
campaign for the White House.
Some observers contend that part of Rove’s success is based
on his willingness to fight dirty. This tendency expressed itself
early, in 1970, when the then-19-year-old Rove made off with sheets
of letterhead from the office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon,
which he then distributed at a campaign rally with the message “free
beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing” printed
on them. Rove reportedly owned up to the stunt many years later,
saying: “I was nineteen and I got involved in a political
prank, but I’m not sorry.”
Rove next went to work for the Nixon campaign, which brought
him to the attention of then-CIA director George H.W. Bush, putting
Rove on a path he would follow till today. Writes Robert Reich: “It’s
no accident that Karl Rove was one of Richard Nixon’s moles.
Using techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist
Donald Segretti, Rove infiltrated Democratic organizations on behalf
of Nixon’s infamous 1972 campaign. Rove’s formidable
talents came to the attention of George Bush Senior, then incoming
Republican National Committee chairman, and the rest is history.” (9,
10)
In 1986, Rove, by then in Texas, announced that his office had
been bugged by Democrats during a gubernatorial race. The accusation,
which spurred an FBI investigation, never panned out, leading some
critics to charge that Rove had bugged his own phone. In 2000,
during the lead up to the South Carolina primary, a reporter claimed
that Rove was behind the “push polls” and whisper campaigns
alleging that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child.
Proof never emerged to fully substantiate the reporter’s
claim. (9)
This pattern of alleged dirty tricks continued into George Bush’s
first term in office, when Rove was accused of leaking the identity
of retired ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife, a CIA operative,
to a prominent journalist. During the 2004 presidential campaign,
Rove was accused of being connected to the Swift Boat veterans
whose effort to denigrate John Kerry’s Vietnam record, which
seem cribbed directly from the “Rovian” playbook, took
center stage during the lead up to the election.
The tricks aside, Rove’s exceptional political skills have
proved essential in keeping the Bush presidency on track. In particular,
he has excelled at finding the right message and then sticking to
it, successfully attacking his opponents where they seem strongest,
and selling the idea of a thriving administration despite appalling
results from Bush’s domestic and foreign policies.
