Karl Rove's dirty secret

Karl Rove has a lot of enemies. And those who don't like him, and don't like his boss, really don't like him and really don't like his boss. So can I say I few word in his defence?

A right wing frat boy? A dirty tricks merchant? Always dealing from the bottom of the deck?

No. Karl Rove is one of the most creative political strategist of the era.

It was a brilliant idea to cast his candidate as a compassionate conservative, a position which gave him an appeal to centre voters while gratifying the base. And it was a correct, if ruthless, strategy four years later to run on security and an appeal to more traditional voters. The result was two election victories in most unpromising circumstances.

The key to Rove is not his ruthless political instinct, it is his understanding of history and ideas.

In 2002, while preparing to go and see Rove for what remains, I think, his only UK newspaper interview (read it here), I learnt this:

Jim Pinkerton, an adviser to Ronald Reagan and the older George Bush, despaired of the latter’s lack of interest in domestic policy, and said so publicly. So he was surprised, when passing through Texas in 1995 promoting a book of ideas about public service reform, to be given red-carpet treatment by the former President’s son. Rove laid on a whole day of events for him, including an intimate lunch with the Governor.

Behaviour like this, repeated with many different people over many years, explains why, in Pinkerton’s words, “at one time or other every conservative intellectual in America thought Bush was listening to them”.

His understanding of history, and interest in the problems facing McKinley and Republicans at the turn of the last century, lies behind the President's position on immigration and the desire to win over Hispanic voters.

The key to Rove, in other words, is that secretly the Republican tough man is an intellectual.

Comments

[Richard Young]

Has anyone ever seriously argued that "Bush's brain" wasn't an intellectual? Or, equally, that being an intellectual disbars him from also being "A right wing frat boy? A dirty tricks merchant? Always dealing from the bottom of the deck?"

It's Rove (and other leading neocons, of course) who conducted the dirty tricks campaigns and really undermined the president's credibility. WMD lies and lack of preparedness for Iraq? Valerie Plame? Alberto Gonzales? Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004? Hmm. Not exactly playing the intellectual trump cards on those occasions.

Republican thinkers got the red carpet treatment, you could argue, because Rove understood his man was never going to be seen as a "thinking" president and needed good PR on that front. Bush feels, Rove thinks, and his talent for spin won two elections. No-one ever said PR people had to have ethics. But if those election victories are discounted, his intellectual legacy doesn't look quite so secure.

PS - Bush's stock rose hugely for me after I saw Alexandra Pelosi's documentary about his 2000 campaign on BBC4. How ironic: I loathe Rove, his buddies and his president. Rove never sold Bush to me in the slightest (nor did he have to, to be fair). But the daughter of his biggest enemy made me warm to the man...

[John Allen]

Completely agree with Richard Young's comment. Rove's image has been that of a brilliant tactician and utter s**t. Nothing to contradict the 'Bush's Brain' label in that.

To suppose that his intellectual side is a political secret, without which his personality and success remains completely enigmatic except to geniuses like Danny Finkelstein, is a bit weak.

[Manny]

Karl Rove has political insight, different then just knowing politics. If he decides to teach political science at the university, his classes would be full. He served the president well, fulfilled his duties beyond the call of duty. Rove withstood the political fires at Capital Hill without a scare. He should be proud of his accomplishments. See you later Karl, they'll be calling you again. The man is good; all the presidential candidates (Republican and Democratic alike) wish they had him. Karl Rove slowly walks into the Texas sunset.

[Terry Kilshaw]

Looks to me like the proverbial rat deserting Bush's sinking ship.

Karl knows that if he stays he will go down with the ship, and that's really not his style now, is it?

Terry

[dan]

bye turd blossom, we will miss you!

[Richard Young]

Manny - I don't think anyone disputes Rove's acumen or his political nous. But many people are sick to death of political science undertaken in an ethical vacuum.

Rove looks like our generation's Henry Kissinger - intellectually huge; tainted by scandals in the administration he served; implicated in a misguided foreign war; globally amoral (although deeply patriotic and driven by his own very clear nationalistic ethics); and serving intellectually weak presidents (not Nixon! Kissinger also served Ford).

Danny says Rove is a great political historian, too, and that he shares with Kissinger (although I doubt he's got the same chops on Europe in the era of the Congress system...). Henry went on to teach political science, so your guess about Rove is probably sound. But your amorality, like his, certainly isn't.

[rich97]

Rove's world began to unravel a couple of years ago when he insisted on trying to force Congress to hand over the Social Security funds so that the stock market gamblers could buy more poker chips. Neither Democrats nor Republicans in Congress were about to commit political suicide by placing the pensions of nearly every American in danger. This guy is no political genius, he, like Kissinger, is a nasty, mean-minded, amoral manipulator who happens to be a little more clever than most, but ultimately blinded by ambition.

[Ben]

I wonder, for what reason he is getting out of this debaucle of an administration at this point in time. Perhaps something big is on the horizon? Which he does not want to get involved with.

But yeah Rove and all the other Neo-Cons are evil and probably at the very least allowed 9/11 to happen; thus allowing them to have their ludicrous War OF Terror.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN]

Well. if you take this kind of view - separating gifts and skills from the way they were used - then Joseph Goebbels was an exceptionally talented man.

[Manny]

Richard Young – Great observations and views. Views shared and opposed. We both recognize the value of individuals by their participation in the process and ability to change the process therefore becoming historical political figures. We differ in the viewpoint of their morality (or lack of) in opinions and actions. President Bush and his advisors were and are correct in most of what they have pursued. To believe one is infallible is unreasonable; but to stand in the fire, to draw the line, to have a backbone is essential in a true leader. Karl Rove stayed on the request of the President. I think his departure signals their believe that nothing new or not much is left on the table to fight for. The Democrats are playing politics and not presenting anything significant for the nation. The Republicans have abandoned the President and won't back him up on any new issues. Campaign time is here.

[Stan]

Totally agee with John Chuckman. Rove was a cynic first and foremost. A smearer, a spinner and an ideologue without a conscience. The accolade 'Turd Blossom' is a rare Bush moment of clarity. Like Bush and Blair his proper legacy is a mountain of corpses.

[pupule]

Rove is not an intellectual. He is intelligent, a different kettle of brains altogether. He's a stew, as is the entire administration, of sociopathic gamesmanship. There is no one in the WH who has even a nodding acquaintance with empathy or honesty.

[sojourner]

His legacy is taking politics to a new level of sleaze. Throw enough mud--something will stick. He'd gladly sacrifice a CIA agent, putting her LIFE on the line to protect all Americans, to stop the Democrats and to manipulate information to mis-lead the country to a war of choice for oil. He took a country united after 9-11 and polarized it.

[Sir]

I spit on draft dodgers and frat boys.

[Malcolm Williamson]

Intellectual he may well be, anyone would appear so in the proximity of Bush junior, but Karl Rove has done no-one other than himself any good by his substitution of Bush’s brains. That includes Bush, the Republican Party, the people and image of the USA, and the rest of free world.
I've seen no evidence of morality in the man from all that I've read about him. His fraternisation with the religous right was less an agreement with their values, more a means of getting Bush elected by their votes, thus ensuring his continuing influence.

On the issue of George Bush's brains, can anyone imagine him having the breadth of vision or the intellectual grasp, even if primed by people like Rove, to provide any sort of leadership in the discussion of any issues of state?

Rove will surely move on to other highly paid employment. Kissinger is living well off his years at the top thirty years down the line. It’s a political celebrity culture thing.

[James Sibal]

This is now the second article by you I have read and I am still trying to understand your take on "journalism".

First of all, "The result was two election victories in most unpromising circumstances." is factually wrong. Precisely speaking, they were political victories under clouds; from hanging chads to Diebold's special arrangements with Bush re: Ohio. So much so that the very fabric of American democracy has been challenged.

Secondly, I simply don't know what you mean by the term "intellectual". Crafty, cunning, effective, etc. yes, but if one imagines that the intellect allows for self-preservation, Rove's manipulation of the GOP will condemn that party for some time in the future.

Rove and Bush have harmed the US and our democracy in such ways that it will take decades to truly calculate. And I rather think that the UK will be paying for too, for some time. Neither certainly aren't Conservatives, in any sense of word I know. The word opportunists with the adjective, greedy, comes to mind more readily.

[Ted]

Tragic and traumatic though it obviously must have been, I think anyone whose parent commits suicide as Rove's mother did is going to end up a little mixed up. He needs, and needed, our prayers.

[Petkov]

hey did you guys know this author is censoring comments and he deciding which comments get to appear and which don't.

[Daniel Finkelstein]

Yes, Petkov, you are correct. The comments on this site are moderated. This is not to avoid you calling me a "sad, sad, excuse for a human being". That, after all, is intellectual speculation and may prove to be true.
No, I moderate comments in order to avoid being sued when you choose to accuse living people of criminal offences of which they haven't been charged. I don't think I'd have much luck saying "bring it on" to the court case and then sending you the bill, would I?

[Shredderofmass]

The Neocons are being ejected from the republican party. Hitlary is the new neocon candidate. The globalists must continue the agenda to wipe the US constitution off the Earth. The Neocons are going to be Democrats now. The Security and Prosperity Plan for North America is being pushed forward next week by our traitor president. This is all about globalism. There is only one party. Welcome to the North American Union. Sell your soul for a gallon of gas you idiots.

[ismaila dahiru]

people of interlects envent great ideas for human use and benifit, but school drop out and veitnam war run-away like karl rove and his master bush create distrative and unconducive world for personal gain, history will gudge one day.