My 2003 Review of the Rove Biography, "Bush's Brain"

Karl Rove's announcement that he will resign from the White House month's end reminded me of four years ago when I brought a copy of James C. Moore and Wayne Slater's Rove biography, "Bush's Brain," to our subdivision swimming pool (after all, one can never be too wonky). The book made it clear that the secret to Karl Rove's success was his chutzpah and ruthlessness--he's Lee Atwater 2.0, new and improved--rather than superior brainpower.

"Bush's Brain" so impressed me that I reviewed it on my personal website in August 2003. It's still very much a worthwhile read and for that reason, I'd like to share my review with the dKos community. As it turned out, I was somewhat pessimistic about the Democrats' chances in the 2004 election. But at the time, Bush was still riding a wave of post-Iraq war support, and you-know-who was the head of the Democratic National Committee, so it was hard to have a warm and fuzzy feeling about politics.

Below the fold, my review...

"The Main Behind the Curtain"

Two men transformed George W. Bush from an embattled "resident select" to an odds-on favorite to win re-election. One is Osama bin Laden, who moved national security--an issue that favors Republicans--to the top of the national agenda. The other is Karl Rove, who capitalized on the aftermath of September 11, and will keep doing do so until the votes are counted next November.

In Bush's Brain, James Moore and Wayne Slater describe Rove's journey from dorky high school debater to the man behind the curtain at the White House. They maintain that Rove, nominally a "political consultant," has been the driving force behind the Administration's controversial policies--including redirecting America's post-9/11 outrage into a simpler, more marketable war against Saddam Hussein.

The authors portray Rove as the owner of an incredible memory and a grandmaster's ability to see 20 moves ahead. But what really sets Rove apart is his refusal to play by Queensbury rules. As one rival put it, "The playing field was always different for Karl. There were no out-of-bounds markers for him." Rove was a bad boy from the start, masterminding dirty political tricks before he was old enough to vote. His advice to student GOP operatives, just weeks after the Watergate break-in, was "don't get caught."

Age hasn't mellowed Rove. "Loser" is still the worst insult in his vocabulary. He isn't satisfied with defeating an opponent, he has to destroy him. And the bigger the target, the better. Rove took immense pleasure in hauling an ex-Attorney General into court over an unpaid consulting bill, and winning on appeal despite the Republican National Committee's intervention. Rove's efforts to punish enemies can border on the bizarre; he continued a vendetta against a rival consultant even after he'd gone to Washington. The authors don't attempt to explain why Rove is so vicious, other than to mention his parents' troubled marriage and his mother's suicide; they wisely leave armchair psychoanalysis to others.

Rove's path to power ran through Texas, where he consulted for a number of candidates--most notably George H.W. Bush, who was then preparing to go after the GOP nomination. In his spare time, he lent a hand to son George W.'s congressional campaign. Father and son both lost--a temporary setback for Team Bush--but Rove's career as a political mastermind was about to take off. By the 1980s, key constituencies were about to defect from Texas's Democratic Party, threatening its century-old domination of state politics. Rove smelled the opportunity; drew up a detailed battle plan for a Republican takeover; and, with financial help from businessmen, many of them associated with the Bush family, doggedly followed his script to a successful conclusion.

It wasn't pretty. Moore and Slater, veteran observers of state politics, detail Rove's methodical destruction of Democratic politicians. Rove played rough, even by Texas's bare-knuckle standards. He leaked damaging information to reporters and investigators, incited surrogates to go after political rivals, worked in tandem with an FBI agent bent on destroying prominent Democrats, and orchestrated whispering campaigns about opponents' personal lives. He once even staged a break-in at GOP headquarters to halt his client's slide in the polls. Rove's modus operandi was to let his client take the high road while he tended to the dirty work, concealing evidence of his own involvement.

Rove's ascent to the top began after the 1992 election. The elder Bush's defeat positioned George W. for an upset win over governor Ann Richards--a thorn in the side of the Bushes--and his run for the presidency. According to the authors, neither Bush nor Rove could have made it to the Oval Office without the other; there is almost perfect symbiosis between Rove, the data-devouring hatchet man, and Bush, the back-slapper who loathes detail.

Battle-tested in two Texas races, the Bush-Rove combination overcame the odds in 2000, largely because of a simple but elegant strategy designed to paint Al Gore as someone who would "say anything" to get elected. They were helped by Democratic ineptitude; Bush's surprise win in West Virginia, which effectively decided the election, never would have come about had the Gore campaign been paying attention. With Bush now the incumbent and Rove running his re-election effort, a loss next year is almost unimaginable, despite some observers' fears that Rove so dominates the Bush inner circle there's no one left to hold him in check.

Looking past the Bush presidency, Rove's success has disturbing long-term implications, even if Rove himself decides to retire from consulting. Voters have shown little sign of rejecting slash-and-burn politics, which means many candidates--and not just presidential contenders--will have to choose between a win-at-all-costs strategy and likely defeat. There's no telling where the ensuing downward spiral will end.