Posted on 07/13/2005 7:16:19 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
As Texas' top political operative, Karl Rove honed an ability to damage an opponent without clear evidence that he was responsible.
The pattern exasperated Democrats but always served Mr. Rove well until, perhaps, the case of Valerie Plame.
Despite early White House denials of his involvement, Mr. Rove has come under attack for his role in the unmasking of a covert CIA operative an act that appeared aimed at punishing a Bush administration critic, Ms. Plame's husband.
It's not the first time that President Bush's most-trusted political adviser has been accused of political hardball or dirty tricks. But usually, there are no fingerprints.
"I don't think anybody who has ever been on the other side of a campaign from Karl Rove could ever be surprised by the allegations, whether well-founded or not," said Austin political consultant Chuck McDonald. "Karl is relentless in his pursuit of whatever his agenda is."
Political operatives in Texas have long seen a pattern they call "the Mark of Rove." Level an opponent, leave no evidence.
A decade ago, Mr. McDonald was advising Democrat Lena Guerrero, a rising political star, when Mr. Rove leaked word to a reporter that Ms. Guerrero, whose resume claimed she was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas, didn't even have a degree.
The leak, and subsequent firestorm of publicity, damaged Ms. Guerrero, a railroad commissioner, and a Rove client defeated her.
In the 1986 governor's race in which he represented Republican Bill Clements, Mr. Rove announced he had found an electronic listening device in his office.
The controversy, coming on the eve of a key debate, helped Mr. Clements unseat incumbent Mark White.
Many Texas Democrats believe the episode was a political dirty trick. Mr. Rove denied he concocted the story.
In 1990, Mr. Rove recruited a little-known West Texas legislator named Rick Perry to challenge Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Stories leaked to newspapers questioned ethical practices within Mr. Hightower's agency, prompting an FBI investigation.
Two Agriculture Department officials went to prison, and Mr. Hightower, who was not charged with wrongdoing, lost the election.
Four years later, when Mr. Rove directed Mr. Bush's first run for governor, a whisper campaign in East Texas targeted incumbent Ann Richards' appointment of gays in her administration. Mr. Rove said he was not involved, but analysts said the incident damaged Ms. Richards' re-election chances.
And in the 2000 presidential race, Mr. Bush faced a serious challenge in the Republican primary from Sen. John McCain. Bush allies questioned whether years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had left Mr. McCain temperamentally ill-suited for the presidency.
Mr. Rove said he played no role in the attack on Mr. McCain. He also denied involvement in last year's successful attack by an independent group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, on Democrat John Kerry's service in Vietnam.
Much of the early money bankrolling the Swift Boat Veterans, though, came from a Houston homebuilder whom Mr. Rove recruited two decades ago to help bankroll the emerging Texas GOP.
The Kerry campaign was quick to see a pattern, even as Rove and Team Bush denied there was one.
"This town is built on myths," Mr. Rove told Fox News. "And I've become a convenient myth."
Perhaps the closest parallel to the current controversy over the outing of the CIA official occurred more than a decade ago.
In that political dustup, a newspaper columnist wrote a damaging piece in 1992 about Rove political rivals within the Texas Republican Party. Although Mr. Rove denied that he was the leaker, Republican leaders believed he was responsible and canceled his direct-mail contract with the Texas GOP.
The columnist in that episode, as in the Valerie Plame case, was Robert Novak.
Yeah but what does Molly Ivins think about?
it?
Hey guys, Im a young republican, and maybe its just that I'm young and confused, or maybe its because I can't get a straight fix on this story. But my question is, wtf happened? Was there a leak? What did Rove do? What is the straight story? All I hear is that there was a leak of a CIA agents wife's name that was undercover. Why are the Dem's making a big deal of this? I feel as if them making a big deal out of it would be putting the identity of the agent more in jeapordy than Carl Rove saying the ladies name. Im just confused. So did Carl Rove say, "Oh, so and so is an undercover CIA agent"
WHY CANT THE MEDIA GIVE ME A STRAIGHT STORY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED?
Thanks,
Pork
The "journalist" who authored this article, one "Wayne Slater", has just committed the journalistic equivalent of malpractice. No unbiased, fair-minded person could draw that conclusion by looking at the evidence.
"Mr. Rove has come under attack for his role in the unmasking of a covert CIA operative"
Really? I was not aware of that "fact."
It's not the first time that President Bush's most-trusted political adviser has been accused of political hardball or dirty tricks. But usually, there are no fingerprints.
Must have left some DNA
OK...President on at cabinet meeting. Says he will not pre-judge an investigation based on media reports. Ha!
LOL
TS Eliot didn't know he was writing about the Dims' pursuit of Rove when he penned that! But it just struck me as fitting to a T.
yup , don'tcha love this rickety thing the MSM hacks have cobbled together, they call it MOUNTING EVIDENCE , give 'em enough rope-a-dope
As another poster remarked, now a lack of evidence is conclusive proof...
I imagine you could ascribe most of the politicians in DC to the personalities of Old possum's book.
I saw Menendez on TV last night; what a clown, a pathetic clown.
it's the Tom Delay effect. No effectie GOP leadership will go un-smeared, regardless of the hypocrisy of the accusers.
Sandy Berger anyone?
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