Karl Rove, the often controversial longtime adviser to President George W. Bush, served as the White House's deputy chief of staff and senior adviser until August 2007. Widely regarded as the key strategist behind Bush's two presidential campaigns, Rove—who has been investigated in relation to a number of scandals that have plagued the Bush administration, including the leaking of a CIA operative's name and the firings of several U.S. attorneys—announced his intent to resign in an August interview with the Wall Street Journal. He told Paul Gigot, the Journal's editorial page editor, that he was leaving for family reasons: "I just think it's time. ... There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family" (quoted in the Washington Post, August 13, 2007).
A scathing August 14, 2007 New York Times editorial opined: "Karl Rove, the architect of so much that has gone so wrong with the Bush administration, announced yesterday that he is leaving the White House to spend more time with his family. What he didn't say is that by getting out of town he is also hoping to avoid spending any time at all with congressional investigators.
"Congress should not oblige.
"The American public needs to understand the full story of how this White House—with Mr. Rove pulling many of the strings—has spent the last six and a half years improperly and dangerously politicizing the federal government."
Rove, who over the years has been tagged with a number of nicknames—including "Turd Blossom," "Boy Genius," "the Architect," "Bush's Brain," and 2004's "Most Fascinating Person of the Year" (according to Barbara Walters)—was behind the strategy to energize the Christian Right base of the Republican Party during Bush's presidency, which proved crucial to Bush's second presidential victory. During Bush's second term, however, Rove saw his political star dim. Widely believed to have been involved with leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, Rove was named as a defendant—along with Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby, and Richard Armitage—in an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Plame (Washington Post, September 13, 2006).
Recounting the scandals Rove was linked to, the Washington Post reported (August 13, 2007): "[Rove] escaped indictment in the CIA leak case, has been under scrutiny by the new Democratic Congress for his role in the firings of U.S. attorneys and in a series of political briefings provided to various agencies across government. Citing executive privilege, he defied a subpoena and refused to show up for a congressional hearing ... on the allegedly improper use by White House aides of Republican National Committee email accounts."
Commenting on Rove's controversial work, New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore wrote: "No political figure is more vital to the self-esteem of the Democratic Party and its faithful than Karl Rove. Ever since Rove rose to national renown with George W. Bush some six years ago, he has provided sweet relief for Democrats otherwise ill equipped to explain Bush's successes. For the president's critics, it is axiomatic that Rove is supremely diabolical and inscrutably brilliant, since they're also pretty sure the president himself is neither" (New York Times, October 15, 2006).
Despite the numerous accusations that swirled around his office, Rove never shied away from provoking his critics. In mid-2006, he infuriated Democrats when he accused them of being weak and timid in the face of terror. He said: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war. Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy for our attackers" (Washington Times, October 23, 2006).
An April 2005 Frontline documentary about the Republican political strategist contended that Bush's 2004 election win was the crowning achievement in a 30-year plan that Rove had devised to make the Republican Party the permanent majority party in the United States. Rove was also credited with having helped turn what was once a staunchly Democratic state, Texas, into a key Republican stronghold, a turnaround that climaxed with Bush's victory over the popular Democratic governor, Ann Richards, in the 1994 gubernatorial election. The Texas governor's mansion became a staging ground for the Bush campaign for the White House.
Some observers contend that part of Rove's success was based on his willingness to fight dirty. This tendency expressed itself early. In 1970, Rove stole 1,000 sheets of letterhead from the office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon, who was running for state treasurer. Rove printed the message "Free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing" on the sheets and distributed them as a supposed invitation to a Dixon rally. Though the rally was disrupted, Dixon won the election. Rove owned up to the stunt many years later, saying: "It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it" (Washington Post, July 23, 1999).
Rove went to work for the College Republicans National Committee and became involved in the Nixon campaign, which brought him to the attention of then-CIA director George H.W. Bush. In a 2003 article on Rove, Robert Reich reported: "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" (American Prospect, February 1, 2003).
In 1986, Rove, in Texas and working on a campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Clements, declared that Democrats had bugged his office. The accusation, which spurred an FBI investigation, never panned out, leading critics to charge that Rove had bugged his own office. In late 1999, there was wise speculation that Rove was behind the whisper campaign alleging that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), then a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president, was in danger of cracking from stress of having been a prisoner of war in Vietnam (Nation, March 5, 2001). Rove is also believed by many to be behind another, perhaps more vicious whisper campaign against McCain during the race for the presidential nomination (Democracy Now, September 3, 2004). "Anonymous opponents used 'push polling' to suggest that McCain's [adopted] Bangladeshi-born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child. In push polling, a voter gets a call, ostensibly from a polling company, asking which candidate the voter supports. In this case, if the 'pollster' determined that the person was a McCain supporter, he made statements designed to create doubt about the senator. Thus, the 'pollsters' asked McCain supporters if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black" (Boston Globe, March 21, 2004). McCain lost the South Carolina primary.
The apparent pattern of alleged dirty tricks continued. During Bush's 2004 presidential campaign, Rove was accused of being connected to the so-called Swift Boat veterans whose efforts to denigrate John Kerry's Vietnam record seemed cribbed directly from the "Rovian" playbook.
In 2002, the BBC reported: "The White House has acknowledged that Rove took part in meetings that helped shape the Bush government's energy policy, while he still held Enron shares and stock in other energy companies—though the administration denies that the meetings were specific enough to raise conflict-of-interest."
For Rove, the frequent assertions that he is behind all Republican successes remain a source of amusement. As he said in an October 2006 interview: "The underlying theory is if we can't prove that Rove was involved with it, then Rove was involved in it" (Washington Times, October 23, 2006).
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Affiliations
White House: Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser (until 2007); Chief Political Strategist (2001-2005)
George W. Bush Presidential Campaign: Chief Strategist, 2000, 2004
University of Texas at Austin: Instructor at LBJ School of Public Affairs and in the Department of Journalism, 1981-1999
Fund for Limited Government: Executive Director, 1978
Virginia Republican Party: Finance Director and Deputy Director, 1976
Republican National Committee: Special Assistant for George H.W. Bush; Executive Assistant to Co-Chairman, 1973-1975
College Republicans National Committee: Executive Director, 1971-1973
Government Service
White House: Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush; Manager, Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the Office of Strategic Initiatives (2001-2007)
U.S. Senate: Staff Member to Phil Gramm (R-TX), 1984
U.S. House of Representatives: Staff Member to Phil Gramm (D-TX), 1982; Legislative Aide to Fred Agnich, (R-TX), 1977
State of Texas: Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Bill Clements, 1981; Deputy Director, 1978
Texas Victory Committee: Director, 1980
Private Sector
Karl Rove and Company: President, 1981-1999
Enron: Former Shareholder
Education
University of Utah: No degree earned
University of Texas at Austin: No degree earned
George Mason University: No degree earned
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