Watergate II: The Return of Karl Rove

No less than John Dean has criticized the administration's tactics. And, completing the circle, Bob Woodward is coming out with a new, critical book on the administration on April 20.

This all might be a little facile if it weren't for the fact that Karl Rove himself was part of the Watergate culture of the Nixon years. Rove was Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee from 1970 to 1972, the key years during which the College Republicans were responsible for Nixon administration dirty tricks. He worked for Don Segretti, author of the Muskie Letter. He ran for Chairman of the College Republicans in 1973, in a dirty-trick-filled campaign. RNC Chairman George H.W. Bush, in supervising the inquiry into the campaign, became impressed by Rove and gave him a job at the RNC. In 1977, Bush tapped him to run the Fund for Limited Government, the PAC that later morphed into his 1980 campaign committee.

With Rove in charge, why should we be surprised that this stuff is back? Perhaps we should take him at his word when he says that the Bush administration learned no lessons from the Nixon years.

Still, I'm all for Rove ending his political career in failure, shame and disgrace. That would be satisfying.

Also, while I don't think it's useful to compare Iraq to Vietnam, other than in the sense that both are motivated more by ideology than reality, I'll note that many more people have died in Iraq than at this point in Vietnam.

It is useful in the sense that in the earlier conflict, there were drafts and nationwide protests and so forth, admittedly built up over years, and something we have not yet seen here. A question might be this -- would Watergate (or something similar) have resulted in Nixon's fall in 1969?

Like what? The dismantling of Homeland Security, the dismantling of the farm bill, the dismantling of arts funding, the dismantling of the new Medicare benefit, the dismantling of expanding education spending, the dismantling of the military complex, the dismantling of federal code, etc., etc., etc.? If you think Bush has a prayer of shrinking any of that stuff, let alone eliminate any of it, let alone not continue to expand it in the next four years, even assuming the congressional numbers are all the same, you don't know much about how DC works.

You confuse me Gabbneb: you often bring up interesting topics or salient posts, then you leap off the deep end to show how blindly partisan you are. Granted, there will always be a chorus of head-nodders here to pile on whatever proclamation of evil deeds you've uncovered, but I get the impression that you don't want a discussion. You just so full of hatred towards Bushco that ILX is your picket line, a release of your anger regarding a lack of political power by the Democratic party. I think I understand the foundation of your anger to a degree (or at least your utter disregard for Bushco), but at times it doesn't jibe with what I perceive to be is your intellect. It's nearly pathological. In fact, I think your psychological profile would be just as interesting as Rove's.

http://foi.missouri.edu/voicesdissent/crazy.html (originally in the WaPo)
http://foi.missouri.edu/bushinfopolicies/bushthumbsnose.html (originally in Insight)

Oh man, I worry about this.. on ethical grounds 'cause I think it's a big nasty Pandora's box and is only good for smear campaigns.. But hell, I'll be unethical today.

Here is Bush-Rove in a nutshell:

Bush: former alcoholic: lives in a bubble world and can't deal with unvarnished reality, but is blissfully unaware of this. Gets by on charm and depends on people not wanting to rain on his parade, and thus pretending things are OK even when they're not. Uses being charming as a substitute for being responsible/competent and gets away with it - 'cause when the life of the party orders another pitcher, nobody likes ruining the fun and telling him it's time to go home. Throws a huge fit when anyone tries to break through the bubble and tell him the hard truth or anything he doesn't want to hear. This tendency causes pretty much everyone around him to work to maintain, at all costs, the illusion that things are fine. Nobody wants to bring him bad news, ever, because this White House will always shoot the messenger. High potential to lash out and say something extraordinarily flippant, petty, and unpresidential in a one-on-one debate with Kerry.

Rove: type of person who alcoholics depend heavily on to maintain the illusion that everything is OK. Effective only up to a certain point as a political operative because you can only put so many patches on the bubble before it breaks. Avoids telling Bush the hard truth in favor of adding more tiny patches to the bubble world.. and the more patches, the more difficult it becomes to admit to any of them, and the more the illusion differs from reality. Probably stressed out of his mind right now because he has been reassuring Bush all along that all the administration's missteps were fixable and temporary and not too serious. Probably freaking out because Karen Hughes doesn't treat Bush like he lives in a bubble, and everything Hughes tells Bush makes Rove look more and more deceptive.

This is just me talking out of my ass, but I figured I'd take a crack at armchair psychoanalysis.

http://liberationwashington.typepad.com/pascal_riche/kerry_frenchhappy.gif
Mais oui, avec plaisir !

It just strikes me as so utterly boring and pathetic. I suppose at heart it's yet another faux-populist reaction against the perceived snobbery and arrogance of the French, which is just like the constant railing against the perceived snobbery and elitism of the Democratic Party. And it's like, OK, there are some arrogant French people, and some snobby elitist Democrats, and I hate that rude shit too, but grow a backbone and stop your whining about it for chrissake. It's not like anyone's going to snob you to death. Oh, that John Kerry looks too French, you shouldn't vote for him. What a load.

Anyone who casts aspersions on a candidate for speaking a foreign language fluently deserves nothing but contempt. Hope Kerry's wife cusses them out in all five languages she knows (I *love* her).

And then, I wonder if I overcompensate via sports-fandom because I know damned well the majority of folks back home would not look too kindly on a French-speaking overeducated liberal. They didn't look too kindly even before the French-speaking overeducated part, actually - reading too many books and using too many big words about did it, back in the day. Oh well.

But at any rate, Kerry is who he is, and speaking other languages or being privileged doesn't automatically mean you look down on folks who don't and aren't - and I think this is a huge part of the problem, the worry that showing too much of one's knowledge or ability is likely to offend others, likely to make them think you're looking down on them. And then, do you go ahead and do your thing, risking the elitist label? Bad news for a presidential candidate, and the media isn't likely to interrogate it.. Or do you consciously try to play down part of your own personality? Kerry is currently being trailed by journalists from France and Quebec who are trying to get him to do a televised interview in French, and though he's perfectly capable, it'd probably do serious political damage.. which is about the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard. Granted, I did hear Chirac is reluctant to speak English on camera for the same reasons.

Kerry, who I find amazingly good at spinning back Bush's 'whoooah, we got us a smartass' rhetoric, should just get down to brass tacks and say the following things:

1. The reluctance of Americans generally to retain foreign language skills learned in school is damaging to both the economy and the intellectual life of the nation. I'd be a much better person and a much better taxpayer if I had better French.

2. Privilege is all about what you do with it. You can either milk it for all it's worth in the world's boardrooms like the Dub or you can use your position to improve the lot of people who do not play golf with you or your family.

3. Do you want a president who plays dumbass? Really?

But anyway..
You can either milk it for all it's worth in the world's boardrooms like the Dub or you can use your position to improve the lot of people who do not play golf with you or your family.
Sure. Well, this sounds good, on the face of it. But then, a whole lot of people - and I have something of this reaction myself - might in fact prefer the one who sticks to the boardroom and doesn't do the noblesse oblige thing - i.e. we don't want you to reach down to improve our lot, we can get ahead on our own, through hard work. The proper sentiment for Kerry that would still have appeal is, I think: you can stay in the world of privilege or you can serve your country. That, everybody can understand, and it doesn't have the air of condescension.

The reluctance of Americans generally to retain foreign language skills learned in school is damaging to both the economy and the intellectual life of the nation.
I would love it if someone on the national stage would really hammer this point. Of course, I think many if not most public schools just aren't effective at teaching foreign languages and don't have many to offer. There's enough difficulty teaching standard English as it is.. I love French but how I wish I had learned Mandarin, or Arabic.

I wouldn't say that recluctance is the right word, if you're talking about anything other than Spanish. I'd say it takes a significant effort and time to retain the skill.

And in this, there will be vast numbers of people speaking Spanish either as a primary or secondary language, probably close to 50% of all US citizens, by 2015. It's already 50% of the population (or very close) in California already.

Also, sometimes I detect a bit of prejudice towards people who refer to foreign language skills because they mean a foreign language other than Spanish.

Someone: "Do you speak another language?"
Me: "Yeah, I speak pretty good Spanish."
Someone: "Oh, I meant like French or German or something."

Maybe it's just me, but Spanish sort of seems like a second-class foreign language here in the US--so many people speak it or know a little, but more than likely it's related to the prejudice awarded towards immigrants and illegals who work menial jobs and can't speak very good English.

Man, that sounds like a number of people I knew who became conservatives. I mean, not the specific details, but the 'nerd' and 'father figure' stuff.

David Brock talks about this in 'Blinded by the Right'.

No, I think as you pretty much demonstrate above, given the saturation of Spanish-speaking citizens, immigrants and illegals in American life, as foreign languages go, Spanish is not especially foreign to Americans.

Three is a trend

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/06/01/rove_linked_to_prosecution_of_former_governor.html

this is the tip of the iceberg isn't it

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/01/attorney.resignation/index.html

WE'RE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS PEOPLE

http://www.unconfirmedsources.com/nucleus/media/5/20060423-mcclellan-765518.jpg

a-HA!

http://www.realitybasednation.com/images/rove-liddy.jpg

haHA so long fucker. This was the douche they installed to go after Hillary, among other apparatchik duties.

http://www.correntewire.com/rovian_justice_in_the_banana_republic_of_alabama

I hate americans

let's see if that gets me fired

Nah you'll just disappear to a re-education centre in Guam for 6 months.

the tomboto identity

fuck a karl rove, seriously.

Karl ROBE

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6214

Rove in Contempt

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Killed_GOP_pilot_suspected_plane_had_1222.html

no way

Ned R. in '04: I'm all for Rove ending his political career in failure, shame and disgrace. That would be satisfying.

This has pretty much happened, but for some strange reason no one has told Rove the bad news, yet. He has descended to sub-sub-Kissinger status, but he will live on, shuffling hopefully through the prolonged twilight of his fame. Too bad no one will ever nail him for the prison time he has so thoroughly earned.

Everytime I hear or see the name "Turdblossom", I feel queasy.

Oh yeah, there's this:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/richard-linklater-casts-paul-dano-as-a-young-karl,61188/

This looks great. I'm envisioning some weird composite of Rove and the kid preacher from There Will Be Blood, with "Sweet Emotion" on the soundtrack.

Movie project above now set to roll in fall, with Harry Potter as Lee Atwater and Dane Dehaan (who has already played Lucien Carr and James Dean) as Rove:

http://www.thewrap.com/amanda-seyfried-joins-daniel-radcliffe-dane-dehaan-in-young-americans/