OK, time to annoy some of my more Republican friends. I don’t mean to do this as a rule; but, sometimes it is just bound to happen.
It does amaze me how well Karl Rove manages to fly under the radar in the world of politics. To many, he is relatively ‘unknown’, he has played the role of a quiet support guy rather well. He is best depicted in the documentary/investigative film “Bush’s Brain.” In his defense, he is clearly one of the best at planning and laying out strategy when it comes to running a campaign. In some circles, he would be referred to as the “It Guy” or in a lesser degree, a “Turtle”.
We all know a Rove in our lives. This is the person who scurries about and whispers into the ear of whoever is ‘in charge’. He or she sets the tone for who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ of favor. Facts rarely enter into the equation and taking the high road is not something that is nearly as important as covering your tracks or forwarding your agenda.
Rove is the Master of the Whisper Campaign. This is the level of communications somewhere between the grapevine and official documented policy and so on. You know the drill… during the presidential campaign, it was used to whisper that John McCain had a really bad temper and was a ‘bubble or so off’ from his military service. Yep, never trust those POW’s.
When it was first revealed / suspected that someone in the Whitehouse may have inadvertently leaked the name of CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to the media George W declared he would fire that person. Guess what? It looks like Karl might be your man. He admitted he probably said something to someone, but as he recalls he thinks it was probably ‘after the fact’ or something like that…
"Karl's got my complete confidence. He's a valuable member of my team," Bush said in his strongest defense yet of Rove, the architect of his presidential campaigns.
Oh? So you were going to fire anyone… well, except Rove.
Year’s back, when I was working as a grunt, there was an issue where someone was painting a flying horse on the outside of some of the tanks at the refinery. The winged horse, of course, was the logo for the dreaded Mobil refinery just next door. Then it became BP, then Tosco and now a Conoco Phillips and soon to be a ride at Disneyland north.
Well, to say our planner was ‘pissed’ would be a major misunderstanding of this Karl Rove of the oil industry. He was going to find out who was doing it and fire them. So the next day, it was discovered it was his Father-in-Law who was the misunderstood artist. Firing became transferring and so on.
So does this mean George W will rethink his approach on Stem Cell research or Social Security or even Iraq?
I’m sure he is waiting to see what Karl Rove thinks.
