This new movie opened at the Angelika downtown and one of the authors had a Q/A session after the movie. If you liked F9/11, then you oughtta go see this. (See it this weekend because opening weekend stats dictate how long the movie runs). The premise is that Karl Rove is an extremely influencial character that changed the outcome of Bill Clemets election, he unseated Ann Richards, he assisted Rick Perry, defeated McCain and he personally selected and groomed GWB as a presidential nominee before people even knew who his father was. His signature is his use of 'dirty' tactics, truthful or not, that aren't necessarily conclusive but cast doubt in the minds of undecided voters which tips the scales. The attack often comes through some THIRD party that isn't directly affiliated with the campaign because the tactics are so distasteful that the candidate cannot endorse it. (Sound familiar...maybe the swiftboat ad will ring a bell?) Every compaign that Rove has been apart of, these tactics are employed. The authors admit they are hard/impossible to prove but the proof is in the pudding. Rove has a long history in politics and these tactics are becomming his signature. If you don't know anything about Karl Rove, it is extremely interesting. You'll learn something about politics you didn't already know. But the movie is a bit forced at times. I got the sense they had an idea for this movie and set out to find a smoking gun but they never really found that. Instead they weave this one-sided story that you can't help but be skeptical about.
I think I'll pass. I have an appointment to put needles under my finger nails that I can't afford to miss.
The difference is Michael Moore doesn't have an office in the whitehouse. He is open about his agenda...take him for face value. If you don't like him, don't see the movie...you have a choice. Karl Rove is subversive and manipulative. Rove DIRECTLY impacts the public policy that affects every American. If he is behind the switftboat adds, then that is pure deception by the whitehouse. Rove represents textbook government sponsored propaganda. Who else did this stuff...oh yea, Sadaam.
I don't know if I'll see this... I still haven't seen Moore's movie, although my wife is dyin' to. I know all I need to know about Rove, from watching him in action and hearing the stories around the Capitol long before George W. became governor. Did they bring up the one about the "bug" behind the painting?? That's pre-Presidential Rove. This is an excerpt from an excellent "political life story" of Rove by Louis Dubose, of The Texas Observer, from March 16, 2001. I recommend reading it for anyone who wants a good overview of Rove's career, what made him what he is, and how he got there. The Texas Observer Feature: 3/16/2001 Bush's Hit Man Karl Rove wins . . . by any means necessary BY LOUIS DUBOSE (excerpt) Rove’s first foray into politics involved gaining entry to the office of Alan Dixon–a candidate for state treasurer in Illinois in 1970–stealing some campaign stationery and printing and distributing a fake invitation to Dixon’s campaign headquarters, promising "free beer, free food, girls, and a good time." "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank," Rove told the Dallas Morning News in 1999. A year later, Atwater ran Rove’s campaign for the presidency of the national College Republicans, and working together they defeated Terry Dolan, the Republican operative who later founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee that helped elect Ronald Reagan. When, in the wake of the Watergate break-in, Rove was accused of teaching dirty tricks to college Republicans, he attributed the accusations to rumors started by Dolan. After the FBI interviewed Rove, the Republican National Committee–then chaired by Bush the Elder–looked into the charges, decided they were baseless, and offered Rove work. Rove later joined Bush and Baker to work on the PAC that Bush set up to position himself for the 1980 presidential campaign, which he lost to Ronald Reagan. Rove soldiered on in obscurity until 1986, when he was working on the second campaign of Bill Clements, a Republican trying to recapture the governor’s office after losing it to Democrat Mark White. Rove made news by going public with a complaint that an electronic bugging device had been found in his office–shortly before a scheduled televised debate between the two candidates. "We never took it seriously, because we knew nobody in our shop had anything to do with it," says Dwayne Hollman, who worked for White at the time. Hollman said it was assumed that it was a publicity stunt. "It was investigated by the FBI," Hollman said, "and nothing ever came of it." Yet some wonder what "came of" Rove’s meeting with FBI agent Greg Rampton, who conducted that investigation. Local authorities who looked into the bugging seem to agree with Hollman’s assessment. "We were the first on the scene and concluded that Rove had hired a company to debug his office, and that the same company had planted the bug," says a source involved in the Travis County DA office’s investigation. But the media reported that Rampton had determined there was nothing to pursue. http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=398 The guy is one of the great political "evil genius's" of our time, and seems to live a charmed life. The crap never sticks to him enough to get him in jail or ruin his reputation beyond repair. No matter how much he pumps out. He worked politics with the great Lee Atwater in college. This guy goes way back to the Nixon administration, hell, earlier than that. Some of his early "victims" were Republican opponents... not that he was working for a Democrat. The guy is consistently GOP.
