Posted on 04/05/2010 6:08:23 AM PDT by RobinMasters
When I served as a Senior Speechwriter in George W. Bush's White House, Karl Rove was the bane of my existence. The rule was that no speech could ever go to the President without its first being reviewed by Mr. Rove, and since Karl was an extremely busy man, he often didn't call in his comments to the Speechwriting Office till eight or nine in the evening. By the time these comments reached me, they often seemed hopelessly cryptic and unintelligible, yet somehow I had to figure out a way to work them into my draft without offending all the other big-shots whose comments I had previously incorporated…And all the while, of course, the President was waiting for his speech.
But despite the grief he caused me, I am one of Karl Rove's biggest fans. Karl is a truly nice man -- modest, personable, and extremely approachable -- yet you couldn't spend more than five minutes with him without recognizing that you were in the presence of a towering intellect. But having just read his memoir, Courage and Consequence, I am forced to conclude that Rove, perhaps more than anyone else, was responsible for the election of Barack Obama in 2008.
Let me recount a bit of personal history by way of background. About four years ago, around the time when Democrats were heatedly charging that Bush had "lied" about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in order to build a case for war (after all, they argued, if the weapons had existed, why weren't we able to find them after liberating Iraq?), I was having lunch with Dr. Laurie Mylroie, one of America's leading students of terrorism in general, and Iraqi terrorism in particular. Laurie was beside herself with anger.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Orwell's 1984 "memory holes" are alive and well and used religiously by the leftist media.
I thought this article was exactly right about Rove. I’d always had the image of Rove as nothing more than a Political Animal. Even the passage cited here from his own book shows it! He says he should have done more to counter the claims Democrats were making. For the historian he & others brag on him to be, Rove evidently forgot Stalin’s famous mantra that “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth” - which is what WMD’s became. Instead of that he said he decided to “focus on the (reelection) campaign”. These charges he left unanswered made his campaign much more difficult than it ever would have had to be. The strategy employed by them to not answer these charges and other attacks was based on the Rove Held Principle of: “When you roll around with pigs you get dirty”. Well, I guess you could say that about any enemy then - including Islamic terrorists, right Karl?. Rove’s failure or disinterest in standing for his principles shows that at root, he really has no principles. He’s a Political Hack - he’s only interested in the optimal calculus for the greatest political expediency. One thing is true: neither he nor Bush is a true Conservative.
And in a bizarre inversion, he was the one largely responsible for trying to be gracious to the very Democrats who were out to destroy him & Bush. Rove decided on the Rodney King approach in DC- “ Can’t we all just get along?”. Not only did it get us a Republican President Bush who forgot he even had a Veto Pen, but Rove’s approach was critical in establishing within the Republican Braintrust that “working with Democrats more often” will stop the harshness of the public attacks against Republicans. That mindset of “reaching across the aisle” gave us McCain. And McCain led to the election of Obama. Conservatives felt betrayed by the Bush Spending and desire to surrender to Democrats legislatively far too often, and by McCain putting that doctrine on steroids for his campaign. Rove had a huge hand in this fallout, there is no question about it.
Neither Rove nor Dubya was a true Conservative - if they had been they never would have allowed those WMD charges, nor other attacks, to go unanswered. Bush & Rove are exactly like Bush Senior & Rockefeller: Country Club Republicans. They campaign on strategy and not principles, which is what ultimately leads to their collapse. They seek political expediency for their benefit - so they’re little more than Political Animals. Their Dirty Little Secret is: both Rove & Dubya believe in the power of government to do things in people’s lives- that’s why they GREW IT! They thought they were above Conservative principles for the expressed purpose of making deals with Democrats trying to destroy them (like the Bush nonsense about having to surrender his Free Market Principles signing TARP so he could “save” the Free Market; if that doesn’t tell you he’s no Conservative nothing will). If he missed that, then Rove wasn’t much of “Bushs Brain”.
Rove a little perhaps, but you've got many of the reasons right here. There were many reasons for the Obama/Dem tragedy, and this FR thread is at least encouraging in that there are people who see it all.
We are NOT playing with amateurs here. They use the full deck.
The challenge is to break through the media front and the electorate's apathy/ignorance. And it takes some real soul searching which Americans are not good at.
Interesting. I was always perplexed why the Bush administration didn’t stand up to the charges made daily by liberals. It’s a shame they didn’t articulate what needed to be said, although a campaign could not be run smoothly by defending an unpopular war.
The Republican landscape had been badly damaged, but even with McCain, the Republicans came fairly close to taking the election. It was no “mandate” for the left.
Plenty of blame to go around, (Soros, ACORN, etc.) but I’d mostly blame the deceitful MSM for keeping the truth from the people and promoting this socialist presidency.
Welcome to FR. 'A kid at the controls'? Compared to whom, Barack Hussein Obama? If you're one who believe we shouldn't respond to a major attack on our soil in our enemy's backyard, then your stay here will be an unhappy one. May I suggest the DU, or KOS, or some other site that advocates 'talk' and diplomacy when confronted with aggression? They're more suited to the pantywaists of our society.
***Sigh. “Blame Bush/Rove” yet again. Try blaming the idiotic American electorate, who thinks they will get something for nothing; try blaming ACORN, who lie and steal; and above all, try blaming the boob McCain, who refused to run a race.***
Thank you for saying the above. It’s exactly the same reaction I had to the article. I expect that the author read Rove’s book; was under pressure for a quick article, and found a gnat he could pick at and expand into a charging rhinocerous for his subject.
“Karl Rove, “towering intellect” ??
No sale.”
Rove seems pretty bright to me.
Now if you want to see examples of intellectual nothingness, check out anyone in the Obamloon-O-dent cabinet.
“The PRESS elected Barack Obama by their mis-feasance, non-feasance and mal-feasance with regard to his past and his likely true intentions. “
nail on the head!
“...they would probably have picked a compromise, RINO candidate to “appeal to everyone” and still have lost!”
Well, think about this - if Cheney had stepped down and been replaced by McLame, and then McLame lost (as he did), he would no longer be the fnn Rino in the Senate that he is.
Good post overall!
It also brings up the question about Soros:
***Soros also moved the HQ of his business to the Bahamas so that he wouldn’t have to pay USA taxes. The punk wants so much influence on this nation but doesn’t pay its taxes.***
Interesting point: Will Soros be included in Hussein Obama’s new bill calling for a 30% tax against overseas bank account?
I have Rove’s book-—haven’t read it yet-—but I hear he admitted that this was his biggest mistake, in not countering these attacks. But think of some of the junk that other “speechwriters” have put out-—Frum-—or his press secretary (McClellan). These guys probably did have the president’s ear, gave him bad advice, then bailed.
I would say their constant, daily, 8 years of lying about the Bush administration, also had a part.
My wife goes ballistic when Republicans try to be "too Christian."
For ex., WMDs? ANY sight trace element should have been touted as proof and case closed. The 550 tons of uranium yellowcake should have been unveiled INSTANTLY, regardless of the terrorist threat, because the long-term loss of confidence in Bush was more dangerous. Ultimately, though, what did Bush in was his 90-degree swing to the left in hopes of buying votes.
“Now if you want to see examples of intellectual nothingness, check out anyone in the Obamloon-O-dent cabinet.”
Referring to a couple hundred morons, does nothing to boost Rove’s intelligence.
This article is silly. Shallow.
Agree. This Joseph Shattan comes across as a real amateur.
Nothing good will come out of eating our own.
PEOPLE HERE ON FREE REPUBLIC WERE SAYING THE SAME THING! So was at least one national publication: The Weekly Standard....
The Bush team seemed to get SO tied up in "governing", they forgot to hit back at the lies told by their critics.
Other conservatives were screaming bloody effing MURDER over the lies told by the left....we cannot let this happen again, IF we are given the opportunity to govern.
In fact, we need to start right now.
THE MASSIVE FAILURE of the "stimulus"--Obama promised unemployment at 8%. We are at 10%, essentially, right now. The only place I hear anyone mentioning the stimulus failure is on talk radio!!
Where the HELL are the Republican leaders???? That type of MASSIVE failure ought to be a mantra. Even if BO gets us to 8% unemployment, he is still FAILING......
Interesting point: Will Soros be included in Hussein Obama’s new bill calling for a 30% tax against overseas bank account?
Soros will still get around paying taxes to the USA. He’s dodging taxes by keeping it in his corporation.
“How hard would it be to deliver Soros to Malaysia, with a small militia led by Dog the Bounty Hunter? I’d donate to that effort!”
_________
The USA can be so hypocritical. We demand that foreign nations send terrorists against the USA to us so that they can face a trial. Yet, we harbor a terrorist like Soros.
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