Karl Rove 101: The Advocate "Interviews" a 2003 Article from The New Yorker to Reconstruct Karl Rove's Possible Role in the Gannongate Affair

By ADVOCATE STAFF

There's a little-known profile of Karl Rove floating around the mediasphere.

It was published by The New Yorker in 2003, and it seems to be the sort of lengthy, comprehensive investigation into the psyche of a man which could be dredged up at any point in that man's life to explain--or predict--his behavior.

The Advocate can almost imagine "interviewing" this crucial 2003 article for a glimpse into how--or why--Karl Rove would have allowed, or consciously sought to make possible, Jeff Gannon's surprising introduction into the (allegedly) "moral values"-obsessed Bush Administration White House.

Here, then, we conduct precisely that experiment on said article, torturing from it, as it were (hello Alberto!) its confessions, its revelations, its seedy secrets about the man often called, depending upon whom you ask, "the boy genius," "Bush's brain," or (as we have at times preferred), "The Minister of All Evil" (in the "interview" which follows, The Nashua Advocate's "questions" to the article are in italics; the article's "answers," originally unrelated to the "questions" to which they are now assigned, are in quotes):

Who, out of all the White House's top officials, would have been most likely to hand-pick a ringer for the White House press corps?

"Rove functions as a national personnel director for the Republican Party, hand-selecting candidates for governorships and seats in the Senate and House."

Is this the sort of trickery Rove is capable of? Something this big, this audacious, this profoundly disrespectful of the American public?

"There are many cases where Rove is suspected of having engineered a brutal bit of political business without leaving any fingerprints, in the manner of the Lake of the Ozarks affair [in which Rove effectively rigged the election for President of the College Republicans, in 1973].

In Texas, where Rove was a dominant Republican political consultant, 'Mark of Rove' speculation has filled many an evening in places where politicians and lobbyists hang out. Probably the two leading Texas stories, out of dozens, or even hundreds, are the one that has him bugging his own office on the eve of a crucial campaign debate, so that by 'discovering' the dastardly deed he could distract attention from his candidate's poor debating skills, and the one that has him inducing an F.B.I. agent named Greg Rampton to investigate employees of the Texas Department of Agriculture on rather slight grounds, in order to help his candidate for Agriculture Commissioner--Rick Perry, now [Republican] Governor of Texas--defeat the very popular Democratic incumbent, Jim Hightower.

Three of the employees were tried and convicted."

Sure, but would Rove ever mess around with investigating an opponent--or possible ally's--personal background? And can we assume, if so, that Rove knew Guckert was a gay prostitute and that his presence in the White House has something to do with that?

"Rove engineered the demise of two of Texas's most promising Democratic politicians, Jim Hightower, the Agriculture Commissioner, and Lena Guerrero, a young commissioner of a state agency, who, Rove revealed...had lied about her academic credentials."

But how closely tied is Rove to Texas politics, really? Is it likely he would know someone heavily involved in Texas politics, like Bobby Eberle?

"When [George W.] Bush won [the governorship of Texas], after an extensive training period supervised by Rove that included briefings on policy issues and out-of-town speaking engagements, Texas's final Democratic political star, Governor Ann Richards, was history. Rove clients [now] held Texas's governorship, both its Senate seats, a majority of the seats on its Supreme Court, and most of the other statewide offices. By the mid-nineties, Rove had got himself into a highly unusual position for a political consultant--functioning more in the manner of an old-fashioned political boss than of a for-hire member of the service sector. Rather than his pitching candidates for their business, candidates pitched him for his commitment."

Assuming he contacted Eberle, or his own mentor Morton Blackwell, and 'discovered' James Guckert as a candidate for grooming, could Rove effectively prepare a man with no journalistic experience, like Guckert, for the spotlight--indeed, to be a member of the White House press corps?

"The Rove operation, at its peak, was like an old-fashioned Hollywood studio, with Rove as the mogul. Rove and his aides, the people behind the camera, were smart, geeky, ruthless, and workaholic; the candidates/clients were handsome, forthright, vigorous, friendly, and easy, with firm jaws and great hair. After they made it through the auditioning process, they'd be sent around the studio lot for buffing and polishing--a stop in 'Message,' a stop in 'Fund-Raising'--before they were given their public debut."

Alright, let's cut to the chase. Is Rove gay?

"[Rove, recalling his first meeting with George W. Bush, said] I can literally remember what he [Bush] was wearing: an Air National Guard flight jacket, cowboy boots, bulletins, complete with the--in Texas you see it a lot--one of the back pockets will have a circle worn in the pocket from where you carry your tin of snuff, your tin of tobacco. He was exuding more charisma than any one individual should be allowed to have."

....

"Rove manages to combine a manner that has no trace of self-effacement with an attitude toward his boss which appears to be truly worshipful....it seems that Rove, the self-made man, gets pleasure as well as practical advantage from his association with the Texas upper-crust, people who give off the glow of ease, charm, and connection which he detected in George W. Bush the first time they met."

"Rove married a young woman named Valerie Wainright, whose family was in the Bush social circle in Houston. Th[is] [first] marriage didn't last long..."

Gay or not, would Rove use a gay prostitute for his own political (or other) purposes?

"'Karl's relationships with people are based on mutual interest, or mutual use,' says John Deardourff, a veteran Republican media consultant whom Rove brought to Texas to work in the 1986 Clements campaign, and who then worked with him in all the Supreme Court races. 'You just sort of accept that. If you're useful to him, he'll be perfectly nice to you. But when that mutual interest is no longer there the relationship does not continue.'"

How would he convince Guckert to play along? Is Rove really willing to buy people off? Especially a man who, like Gannon, claims to be a practicing Christian?

"[To get Bush the governorship of Texas], Rove had the wit to lock up the support of most of the key figures on the religious right, such as Ralph Reed, whom Rove arranged to be put on retainer by Enron."

Would Rove ever admit any wrong-doing, once caught? Even if it was somehow just an oversight on his or someone else's (as in, the White House Press Office's) part?

"Rove is highly invested in countering the charge that he puts politics ahead of policy....Every time I interviewed someone close to Rove, that person first checked with him to make sure it was okay to talk to me, and then, in the interview, made a point of offering a testimonial to Rove's deep and sincere interest in public policy....

[O]ne of the rules with Rove is that anything he's been criticized for must be denied."