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Progressives Choke on Their Pretzels as Karl Rove Rewrites History
It has been fun watching the man known as 'Bush's brain' squirm on the TV talkshows as he tries to sell his self-serving memoir
For Karl Rove's legions of liberal detractors – who did not manage to lay a hand on him while he was in power – it has been a case of too little, too late.
President George W Bush announces the resignation of Karl Rove in August 2007. (Photograph: AUDE GUERRUCCI - POOL/EPA) But watching the man dubbed "Bush's brain" take
to the media circuit to flog his self-serving memoir Courage and
Consequence has at last provided a tiny bit of satisfying blood
sport at Rove's expense. It has not been a pretty sight and is one that
Rove, no doubt, will blame on the natural liberal tendencies of
America's media classes. Yet it has been fun watching a man whose name
became a byword for brutal, dirty politics go cap in hand around the
talk shows and get a thorough roasting.
Leading the charge was normally genial daytime TV host Matt Lauer, who laid into Rove over everything from the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina to his role in the leak of the identity of CIA spy Valerie Plame. "Some are saying this is 500 pages of you rewriting history," Lauer said. He was wrong. It's 608 pages.
The book stands accused of being a towering monument to self-denial of what are now seen as self-evident truths. Despite millions of words of newsprint, endless government probes in numerous countries and hours upon hours of TV reports proving the opposite, Rove stands by the idea that President George W Bush invaded Iraq reluctantly. He also denies Bush condoned torture. "He did just the opposite," Rove wrote.
He even makes the case that Bush moved swiftly and aggressively on climate change and says administration officials never tried to foster the belief that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 terror attacks. Ah yes, and the earth is flat, the moon is made of green cheese and I've got a reliable secondhand car I'd like to sell you.
No one tore into Rove better than Dana Milbank, the Washington Post's frequently scathing political sketch writer. "What he divulges nearly made me choke on a pretzel," he said. Even former colleagues stuck the knife in. "I think what you're seeing is that Karl is continuing to live in his own world here," Scott McClellan, Bush's former press spokesman, told MSNBC.
According to Rove, Bush will be remembered by history as the man who "laid the foundation for victory in the global war on terrorism and the expansion of democracy abroad".
As Milbank said: "Rove's work should have been called Ten Thousand Miles From Self-Aware."
43 Comments so far
Show AllMaybe Rove should be committed to a psychiatric institution. he is clearly delusional.
No, no. To the contrary, he's using a tactic that has worked very well.
There must be a term for it, but the Right is doing something that seems to be working. What they do is to call black, white, and white, black. They do something, and say, with well-practiced straight faces, "Hey, we didn't do that, Liberals/Progressives did that!" Or, they will quite obviously start something (like an illegal war) and say, "We didn't start a war." By sheer dint of unmitigated chutzpa and bald-faced lying, they seem to shut down a reasoned response. Our brains hurt at the overwhelming irony and hypocrisy and can't retaliate!
Oh wait, I just remembered the term for what they do: Doublespeak.
It seems to work.
In the G W Bush White House, this practice of psychological projection was known as 'creating reality.' I call it the pathological lies of manipulative confidence men unburdened by conscience. Nonetheless, here's a very revealing excerpt on 'reality creation' from an article written by Ron Suskind in The New York Times Magazine who was interviewing an unnamed senior Bush advisor:
"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
In his ridiculous book, Rove is obviously just following this manipulative tradition in attempting to create his own reality. For the record, it would appear the Obama administration is seamlessly picking up where the Bush Administration left off...
"For the record, it would appear the Obama administration is seamlessly picking up where the Bush Administration left off..."
You know, it's hard to say. While I certainly am under no illusions that the political left doesn't also create their own reality (or, our reality, as the case may be), I really believe there is a difference between conservative and liberal mentalities. I believe most people of progressive persuasion believe in their hearts that telling the truth and acting on our convictions means something. In that way, we are kind of naive. But it is still the right thing to do!
OTOH, the side of "manipulative realities" has an entirely different mindset. It's as if they really believe that the ends justify the means. As long as they and theirs are not negatively impacted, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead! And all we can do is shake our heads.
interesting article. Thanks for including it.
If your best friend introduced you to the world, from the highest office in the world, as his "Turd Blossom," wouldn't you have a bit of a problem with the truth - and everything else for that matter.
Then again, maybe there's a tiny speck of truth to GW being against some of the things Rove says he was against. Remember, it was the self-appointed Cheney who was in charge until '05, when GW won the vote fair and square (at least to his way of thinking), and wrested control away from Cheney.
And how, pray, did GW win the vote "fair and square" in '05, as you say? Have you forgotten Ohio?
No, I didn't forget Ohio by a long shot, but I'm sure GW wasn't paying attention to what went on there, and really believed he'd won fair and square that time.
yeah - and he "really believed" saddam had WMD.
Rove's book, Courage and Consequence, falls in line with the new proposed social studies textbook of Texas.
Replacing TRUTH and CONSEQUENCES?
This person is Beneath Contempt.
Moreover, he is Indictable. When is somebody - like the Justice Dept. going to do it?!? Last time I heard, they work for me. Lost emails, my ass! I think it's called Subversion - a Capital Crime. We all know what that means, don't we.
Don Siegelman-- google him. A victim of Karl Rove.
Rove is a psychopath and should be in jail.
If there is a god and there is such a thing as justice...let god show himself NOW! Or, will the Supreme Being just once more sit on his hands and let this slime also slither away into obscurity.
The religious out there…if you believe in the devil or Satan….then take a good look at his representation here on Earth. YOUR god is an enabler. Only the rich and powerful can get away with murder and more. God says so everyday he lets this injustice prevail.
Don Siegelman. Google him. A victim of Karl Rove.
Rove is a psychopath and should be in jail.
No -- he should be "renditioned" -- then given over to the Iraqis so they can quarter and hang him from a bridge in Iraq ...and leave him there to be slowly picked upon by crows...if they will tolerate his taste.......give him a bit of "old time, ancient justice" in the "democracy" he and his "master" puppet george and company "brought" to IRaqis. ..and then he can see his "maker" who'll unleash the Dogs of Hell on him , in perpetuity.
Is there a chapter on each murder he was responsible for? Is there one on his involvement in the Daschle anthrax case?
NO -- History will Tell the Story of
George Bush the Boy Emperor Played by his very own Rasputin -- Karl Rove.
It takes a pure shit-stain like Karl Rove to make time-serving pissants like Matt Lauer and Dana Milbank seem righteous.
Carl Rove is a spokseman for the war mongering rich who make money on war. In a nutshell, capitalism has made America stupid.
do not buy this book.
do not even steal it.
deface all copies you cannot hide.
How do you know when Rove (or any Repugnant One) is lying? His mouth is open.
and now u have Emmanuel not the Soft-Porn star the evil immoral killer who is re-incarnated everxtime there is a new dictator in the WH
Fu** Bush and the Roving horse he rode in on.
Shame, shame, shame on Obama for letting these men go free.
It's a national disgrace to US that the culpability of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Yoo et al is even being discussed.
And Gordon Brown with his "right war, right reasons", for that matter. Plus Bliar.
Where are those "WMD"? Where's the "mission accomplished"? Where's the withdrawal? Where's the end to the lie-based wars?
Makes me sick. And particularly that so many people are STILL duped, STILL believe.
Go around bookstores, move Rove's book to the fiction-shelves.
You know, every so often one book out of thousands comes along that actually deserves burning.
Along with the author.
Galenwainwright:
But they are like buses, you wait in the cold for ever, then two come along at once. Add Anthony Charles Lynton Blair's "My Journey", just out. And it's author.
Ifor one am glad to see Karl Rove exposed for all his deceptions and dirty tricks. Let us always remember that this man has been dubbed America's Goebbels. My heartfelt prayer is that the party that moved so very close to being fascist does not regain power in any meaningful way. And just to see the apologists for his actions make very public appearances to spin this makes me sickened. Karl should have to face the consequences of his behaviors. I would call forth a version of Scrooge, in which he is forced to look at himself. This would not be a pretty sight but it would help to restore his humanity.AS a member of the human race he deserves this much.
In the event that anyone even vaugely connected with Bush crime family , tries to sell candidacy to american public we must remind ourselves of all the crimes committed by and in the interest of Bush crime family. A sordid past beginning with the bankrolling of Hitlers rise to power and continuing on from there.
Mr Spin just can't do anything else.
Spin Spin Spin, your boat, gently down the drain,
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, your life is but a shame...
Ha-ha, good one :-)
Even up wind and five states away I can smell Turd Blossom.
Rove presents a variation of the Nazi pr machine.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that Rove is a murderer and a war criminal.
There's the Rover pig, in a blanket of irony, squealing about "liberal" media when his pig-trough full of revisionism stands on a foundation of liberal tolerance bordering on blatant encouragement.
*Comment deleted by site administrators for violating our Comment Policy*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
'0necaptjim' - Congrat's for provoking the site to "defend" Rove! Must've been a strong one!
Wish I knew how to go that far...
)/%&#(&)(=) Rove =)&(/%&¤#¤#"%¤#)(P is ==/()§)((/&%))(¤&%¤ in 09y998(%)% the &%¤"&%¤¤/&!!!
- Now project yr worst thoughts on Rove into that!
That this individual is cashing in on his lies and crimes instead of spending hard time in jail is proof that Obama's a greater criminal.
Revealing the identity of a CIA agent is punishable by death and that's just one of his numerous crimes. Shame on you, Obama.
courage and consequence had to go on the cover...
they were missing in the book...
30 bucks for this crap is the final insult to the American people. They should hang him like Saddam.
That's incitement to lynching, but the site allows that! - Hm...
Really makes me wonder what the guy who got deleted was into.
With spring coming many noxious things are springing up -like Turd Blossom for example.
A healthy dose of critical thinking is all that is needed to counteract this despicable pestilence.
I just saw a web ad for that book.
It was an extreme close-up of Rove's face with a bit of text.
I mean, they don't show you an extreme close up of hemorrhoids when they try to sell you Preparation H.
Just sayin'