Posted on 07/23/2005 11:08:14 AM PDT by johnny7
To the inflamed partisans of the left, President Bush is a simpleton, a nincompoop without a clue.
I'll grant that our president is no genius. But he is smart enough to have scored a higher college grade point average than our "nuanced" junior senator from Massachusetts. That's what so frustrates Bush's most bitter opponents: How could one so lacking in brain wattage confound their well-considered schemes? How does he trump them every trick? How did Bush defeat their chosen candidates and escape every effort to smear or discredit him? There must be someone behind the scenes, someone working the puppet strings. But who?
Karl Rove. The president's political adviser was the Rasputin they sought. The left became so obsessed with the image of Rove as an evil genius, a master manipulator, that they were willing to credit him with the wildest schemes imaginable. Some left-wing bloggers even imagined that Rove planted the phony documents concerning Bush's military career that blew up in Dan Rather's face. And now, with Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame matter, they think they have him cornered. The left can't get enough of stories that Rove spoke with columnist Robert Novak and Time reporter Matthew Cooper about Plame's job at the CIA. It's front-page news in the New York Times and Washington Post.
But remember: Dracula is always at his most dangerous just as you're about to drive the stake through his heart. And like the stories about the caped blood-sucker, there's more myth than reality to the tale of Rove as a betrayer of CIA secrets.
Here's the myth: Eager to prove Saddam Hussein was a bad guy in the run-up to the Iraq war, Vice President Dick Cheney asked former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV to visit Niger and prove Saddam's agents had tried to purchase uranium ore — yellowcake — there. But Wilson's investigation found no such evidence. So in an effort to discredit him, Rove tipped reporters that Wilson's wife — Valerie Plame — was a CIA secret agent. Revealing the name of a CIA undercover agent is against the law.
Here's the reality: Plame worked in the CIA's office dealing with nuclear proliferation. Plame, not the vice president, recommended the CIA send her husband on the Niger investigation. Wilson's investigation, haphazard at best, was viewed at the CIA as somewhat supportive of the claim that Saddam sought nuclear materials in Africa. That's according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report. Rove didn't tell Novak Plame was a CIA agent. It was the other way around. Novak told Rove he had heard Wilson's wife worked at the agency. Rove replied that he had heard that as well. That's from last Friday's New York Times.
Plame hadn't been on a covert assignment for six years when Novak identified her in his 2003 column. The law protecting agent identities limits that protection to one who has been on covert assignment within five years. The exposure must be intentional and specific to be a crime. According to the New York Times, Rove knew neither Plame's name nor that she had been a covert agent. The Washington Times reports that Plame's friends and neighbors all knew she worked at the CIA. So no crime, no story. Right? Guess again.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told the Associated Press Wilson had been targeted by "a smear campaign launched by the West Wing of the White House." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ranted that Bush should strip Rove of his clearance to view classified information. "This is what is known as a cover-up. This is an abuse of power," he said.
The Democrats desperately want Iraq to be Vietnam and the Plame affair to be Watergate. They're fighting the political battles of 30 years ago. As long as the left remains trapped in the past, they will have little attention to spare on the important issues of today. That's good for Bush, the Republicans and the nation.
It couldn't work out any better if Karl Rove had planned it that way.
Ken Johnson is an editorial page editor with the Eagle Tribune Publishing Co
I think we will see more and more of this. There is just no there there!
This impression that the President gives the left that he is not intelligent is the most brilliant political strategery I have ever seen. The Left just can't help themselves. They have to pile on 24/7 about the President being an intellectual lightweight. In the mean-time the public observes the President's well considered policies and notes that his fractured syntax is not much different from their own.
Karl, spelled with a K, like the KKK
The more libs hate Karl Rove, the more I love him.
To switch metaphors to another 70s icon, the Democrats are starting to sound like Fred Sanford: every time something doesn't go their way, they clutch their chests saying "Oh, mercy. This is the big one."
Why is it these people assume he is not smart because he is not always a great orator or fancifully articulate? Helen Keller couldn't speak at all and people did not accuse her of being stupid. People who speak with President Bush one on one usually say he is very bright. And on the other hand you have people who are great or interesting orators with very low brain power.
The left ALWAYS misunderestimates President Bush's strategery.
kudos to mr. johnson for actualy presenting the facts, i wonder if ted k. has invited for a car ride in an oldsmobile yet?
ping
Especially the nation.
It's 'gonna take a lot for me to believe that Rove leaked Plame's name and perjured himself to a grand-jury. This guy is the 'Stonewall Jackson' of political strategery.
The Dems really think they've been handed a gift. It's a big box with colorful wrapping paper and a nice bow. What they can't seem to come to grips with is the fact that inside the box there is nothing but fresh Wyoming air.
I saw an episode recently where Aunt Esther says that she wasn't going to put on any make-up for a function they were about to attend. Fred looks at her funny and says...
“You better put some on... or I'm 'gonna drive your ugly (ass) through Earl Scheib!”
"The more libs hate Karl Rove, the more I love him."
Dittos! That's my litmus test for conservatives: how much hate can they inspire from the left.
"Why is it these people assume he is not smart because he is not always a great orator or fancifully articulate?"
In the first term, there was so much made of the Bush-isms and Bush-speak by the left to show how 'dumb' the so-called 'accidental president' was. I'm glad all that has died down. So too, the concept of President Bush being a puppet of VP Cheney. Now that President Bush keeps on running rings around the opposition, they think Rove is the master controller. If they get rid of Rove, they get rid of Bush, is their thinking. Let them think that because it's ludicrous. President Bush is a sharp politician who surrounds himself with smart and savvy people. He will continue to outfox the bewildered left.
Nice summation.
Actually, I don't believe that WAS a parody. I listened as another listener called saying they had heard an ad comparing Rove to the KKK (noting the "K"). The listener thought initially that it was a parody...except it wasn't. An actual ad by some lefty group had placed it.
People up here need to see/hear the truth even if they hate it.
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