Posted on 11/06/2004 3:52:30 PM PST by republicanbred
The year was 1968. The Vietnam War and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were shaping history. Little did I know that walking next to me in the halls of Olympus High School that year was a friend who would shape history in 2004 as profoundly as these events did in 1968, the year Karl Rove and I were 17. Karl started out with every social disadvantage. He was the new kid, physically still pre-pubescent, the classic nerd, with Coke-bottle glasses, pants too short, belt too tight and, to make it even worse, he was non-Mormon. Yet at a very clique-ish high school, he managed to break into the social elite by understanding who was in charge and how to appeal to them. He had an energetic but not a charismatic personality. He was intelligent, but not a genius; he was well-read, but tried a little too hard to let you know that.
Karl Rove Junior at Olympus High School, 1968.
Karl became my friend and political counterpart. I was the student body president; he was president-elect of the student senate. We conducted political conventions at our high school. He organized the Republicans. I organized the Democrats. But when the convention was over, the rest of us went back to worrying about our next zit, our next date, making the team. Some thought about college, the SATs, the war and occasionally "What does it all mean?" Karl remained consumed by politics; not the ideology, the principles or the social ramifications of politics, but the infrastructure, the wheeling and dealing, the game and, most of all, the winning. Most of our friends were academically focused with goals of becoming doctors, lawyers, professors and scientists. But with typical youthful idealism we also dreamed about our future romances, our families and making the world a better place. Karl was the only 17-year-old I'd ever met whose dreams were limited to being a political operative, period. One mutual friend said, "Karl would stare at a sunset and see only the political implications of it." I never remember Karl talking about making the world a better place. His next milestone: At age 22 he conducted a conference for young Republicans on the art of dirty-tricks politics. Thirty years later he has accumulated a remarkable winning streak at political gamesmanship, but with the Machiavellian mantra of the end always justifies the means. The means have been astonishingly brutal. When Rove decided to reach for the top he found the only presidential candidate who lacked everything he could provide. The symbiosis of Bush and Rove has steamrolled through the political landscape like the Terminator
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wearing an Alfred E. Newman mask and a cowboy hat. On the outside there is Bush, with his "aw shucks" down-home-guy act who says he's on a mission from God. On the inside is Rove, the scorched-earth killing machine whose mission is to destroy every political opponent in its path. On the outside there is Bush, who brags about not reading newspapers or anything else. On the inside there is Rove who reads everything and has unmatched attention to detail. On the outside is Bush, who seems to truly believe in Bible literalism and creationism and who admits to allowing his foreign policy to be shaped by an apocalyptic view of the imminent second coming of Jesus. On the inside is Rove, who thinks of the Second Coming as the re-elect-Jesus campaign. For Karl, winning is the only goal and the tactics used have no ethical, moral, factual or even legal restraint. The latest edition of Rove's smear campaigns came in the form of the Swift Boat Veterans' now totally discredited version of John Kerry's Vietnam service. It did what smear campaigns always do. It diverted attention away from what really matters. I can't say that in 1968 I saw all the seeds of what Karl Rove would become. I am surprised more people haven't been willing to stand in his way. But a person that relentless, that single-minded, that focused loses peripheral vision, and that's where someone more introspective might see the collateral damage of their obsession. If Karl the Terminator would pause long enough to turn his head a little to either side he would notice that in the movie of real life the victims scattered all over the highway are not just the Democrats but democracy itself. An electorate distracted by dirty tricks is less able to vote to protect the public interest, which is the whole purpose of democracy. A distracted, deceived and fearful electorate is the precursor of fascism. Far better than any of his old friends, Karl truly has achieved his dream job. Unfortunately for the rest of us it's become our nightmare.
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Dr. huh... Shut up and Heal!
Yeh, right. Repeat it often enough, maybe Kerry will suddenly get a serious wound (not a Purple Boo-boo) if you keep lying about the Swifties.
LOL!
Didn't the Swift Boat Vets have a news conference in May and nobody came? Has the author ever bothered to actually read the book, address the specific charges or question why Kerry refused to release his military records? Of course not. 200 people who served with Kerry are all liars because he said so. The two who supported him are all the truth we need to know because Kerry said so.
I am beginning to doubt the author even knew Karl Rove once upon a time because the entire article smacks of "holier than thou." And shame on the author for trying to drag the Mormon religion into this. As I recall, Kerry couldn't muster even 30% of the vote in the state of Utah.
FOUR MORE YEARS!
FOUR MORE YEARS!
FOUR MORE YEARS!
Just curious: this article was published well over a week ago and was the subject of a fair amount of comment then. Any reason to post it now? Dr. Moench (an anesthesiologist who clearly has been sampling the merchandise) had his little screed posted on sites like "The Smirking Chimp" in addition to being published in the Salt Lake Trib, so it seems to have pretty well gone the rounds.
Don't mention Rove, start with Dan Rather and the rest of the Big Media slime!!!
It looks like the sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is "Bush Country" too - the RED Sea.
And I believe the Swifties are not done with John Kerry. Stay tuned.
Now be freakin' fair. What the hell other job on this planet could James Carville get other than work as a Democrat operative? For generations the Carvilles made their living by making a profit from a terrible disease.
"Discredited Swift Boat Vets"?
LOL
Discredited among you discredited losers, perhaps, but we here in Red America can tell the difference between the truth and a dog and pony show.
I think Mr. Moench should see a shrink and quick. He's so delusional he gives new meaning to the word paranoid.
Sorry for posting with the ---advertisement--- error in there. I am a long time lurker, once in a blue moon poster, but this was my first article posting. I missed the part about previewing my posting.(oops!)
By the way, you guys on this site literally saved me from a pre-election breakdown.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! You are the best!!!
[snip]
Karl, winning is the only goal and the tactics used have no ethical, moral, factual or even legal restraint.
BUSH WINS !
Bush wins !
BUSH WINS !
Eat it, libs.
Who is this idiot? Obviously they never met Karl Rove...it just goes on and on, the democratic bull&#!* lies. These people need to get a life.
Huh. Had to stop there. Shame, because it was a fairly interesting piece up to that point. But then the author had to go and expose himself, carelessly, as a liar. NOTHING the Swift Boat veterans have claimed has been discreditied. Nothing. This clown obviously never bothered to read the book.
Do I take it that Dr. Brian Moench is a Mormon?
I'm surprised at his Dem devotion.
...Then I find this gem:
The latest edition of Rove's smear campaigns came in the form of the Swift Boat Veterans' now totally discredited version of John Kerry's Vietnam service.
Who has discredited John O'Neill and the Swifties Dr. Moench?
(Crickets)
Methinks you don't have an answer, only an agenda. Even Kerry himself wouldn't confront the Swifties face to face.
Dr. Moench, you're pathetic.
5.56mm
DR. EVIL, I PRESUME.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
Well, we know the author is a liar so it is safe to presume that the guy never even met Rove.
I'll be damned, We went to the same High School. A few years apart, though.
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