I wanted to take a moment and explain why I mentioned Karl Rove in the headline yesterday. These sorts of dirty tricks are what Mr. Rove seems to be all about. In fact, when I searched Google on his name, the first sentence of the first article that came up was, “He's America's Joseph Goebbels.”
While I would like to stay away from the Bush Administration/NAZI comparisons, when one of the most influential people in the White House started their political career by sabotaging the opening of a campaign office of a Democratic candidate there is definite cause for concern.
In 1970 when he was a protege of Donald Segretti (a convicted Watergate conspirator), Rove snuck into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole some letterhead. He printed fliers on the letterhead promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing" and distributed the fliers at rock concerts and homeless shelters. Admitting to the incident much later, Rove said, "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank."
It’s The Simpsons “Boys will be Boys” defense. From there he went on to such heights as the 1986 bugging incident in the Texas govenors race.
[J]ust before a crucial debate in the election for governor of Texas, Karl Rove announced that his office had been bugged by the Democrats. There was no proof, and it was later alleged he had bugged his own phone for the media coverage that the incident generated, but there was no proof of that, either, and no charges were ever filed.
This is a man that defines the concept of the ends justifying the means, and to him, the ends are the political success of his canidate. Now that his canidate is going into the 5th year of his presidancy, it would seem that there would no longer be a role for this Senior Advisor to the President. But the Bush Administration sees their leadership role from the perspective of being in a permanent campaign. Having to constantly defend their record, this makes sense. Unfortunarely, “Rove, running a permanent campaign, doesn't grasp his limitations, and at the very least this means a greater risk to American lives.”
What this means to me is that when a CIA agent who does not tow the party line is suddenly investigated on “allegations that he had sex with a female informer and stole money used to pay informers,” I start getting really nervous. As I said yesterday, an anonymous plaintif in a wrongful termination lawsuit against the CIA has more credibility than the Bush Administration does with me at this point. Much of my confidence in the Administration is eroded by the high profile of Rove in the White House.
And when Bush starts talking about spending political capital, I start wondering what Rove has in mind.
Rove’s tactics get really scary if the Administration dares use such measures when it comes to foreign policy. Especially when we are at war.
Today, I noticed this nice headline, “White House mum on El Baradei eavesdropping report.” It seems that there are allegations that “the United States has monitored telephone calls between El Baradei and Iranian diplomats, seeking ammunition to oust him.”
There is a big difference between bugging your own office in a gubernatorial race and using similar tactics to take out the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency. These are the sorts of actions that, if they are happening often enough and severely enough, tend to get Coalitions of the Willing riled up for a military intervention.
If the www.counterpunch.org essay is correct that Rove’s mentor was a Watergate conspirator who went to jail for distributing illegal campaign material, could we see Karl taking a long look at his shower options in the future? I would guess not. I doubt that we’ll see a Republican Congress take on the president. I doubt that any investigation would carry enough weight to make the GOP turn against the Administration. For Clinton, it took lying about receiving oral sex to get an impeachment trial rolling. However, for a Chief Executive of their own party, Bush would probably need to be caught red handed drowning Christian Orphans from Mississippi in the Lincoln Bedroom to even be investigated by the Republicans in Congress. Since it would be hard to take down Rove without taking down the President, he is probably safe.
For more information on this gentleman, who was once heard shouting "We will fuck him like he's never been fucked before," a man who even GWB calls a “turd blossom,” please explore the following articles. The above quotes came from them, though I cannot say that I have read each one in depth.
White House mum on El Baradei eavesdropping report
Exposing Karl Rove
The brains behind Bush
Karl Rove: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
And Rove Gets to Keep His Job… A Green Light For Abuse?
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