From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia.
Karl
Rove (born December 25, 1950 in Denver,
Colorado) is as of 2004 U.S. President George W.
Bush's Senior Advisor and chief political strategist.
Karl Rove began his
political career with the College Republicans, which
he chaired from 1973-1974. For the next few years, he worked in various Republican Party
circles and assisted George H. W. Bush's 1980 presidential
campaign.
In 1981, Rove
founded a direct
mail consulting firm, Karl Rove & Co., based out of Austin,
Texas. This firm's first clients included Republican Governor Bill
Clements and Democratic
Congressman Phil
Gramm, who later became a Republican. In 1993, Rove began advising George W.
Bush's gubernatorial campaign. He continued, however, to operate his
consulting business until 1999, when he sold the firm to focus his efforts
on Bush's bid for the presidency.
After Bush became
the 43rd president, Karl Rove became a Senior Advisor to the President. Rove
is generally considered one of the most influential advisors in the Bush
administration, and he has earned a reputation as an aggressive
campaigner.
History
Rove is known for
his political tactics when he was a protege of Donald Segretti, convicted Watergate
conspirator. In 1970, he
sneaked into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole
some letterhead. He printed fliers on the letterhead promising "free beer,
free food, girls and a good time for nothing" and distributed the fliers at
rock concerts and homeless shelters. Admitting to the incident much later,
Rove said, "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank." [1]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/rove072399.htm)
[2]
(http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010305&c=2&s=dubose)
[3] (http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/2/reich-r.html)
In 1986, just
before a crucial debate in the election for governor of Texas, Karl Rove
announced that his office had been bugged by the Democrats. There was no
proof, and it was later alleged he had bugged his own phone for the media
coverage the incident generated, but there was no proof of that, either, and
no charges were ever filed. [4] (http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen1101.html)
After dropping out
of the University of Utah in 1971,
Karl Rove started his political career as the executive director of the College Republican National
Committee. He held this position until 1972 when he became the National
Chairman of the College Republicans (1973-1974). As chairman, Rove had
access to many powerful politicians and government officials during the Watergate scandal, including
then CIA director George
H. W. Bush. For the next few years, he worked in various Republican
circles and assisted George H. W. Bush's 1980
presidential campaign. Rove's greatest claim to fame at the time was that he
had introduced Bush to Lee Atwater. A signature tactic of
Rove was to attack an opponent on the opponent's strongest
issue.
In 1993, according to the New York
Times, John Ashcroft's campaign paid
Karl Rove & Co. over $300,000 to aid his Senate race. In 1999, the George W. Bush campaign effort
paid Karl Rove & Co. $2.5 million for July through December. According
to Rove, "About 30 percent of that is postage."
In early 2000, during the Republican
primary, Senator John McCain led George W. Bush in
the race for the Republican presidential nomination and won several state
primaries. A push
poll was allegedly launched against McCain: telemarketers were allegedly
hired to place calls throughout South Carolina asking potential
voters how they may react about a candidate, in this case McCain, had they
known some negative, possibly untrue fact, about the candidate. In this
particular instance, voters were asked �Would you be more likely or less
likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an
illegitimate black child?� A reporter, Wayne Slater, suggested in print that
Rove might be behind the whisper campaign. Rove denied any involvement.
McCain's support subsequently dwindled, and Bush won the nomination. (There
were other factors in that primary contest as well, including a long
exchange of negative television advertisements between the two
candidates.)
After the
presidential elections in November 2000, Karl Rove organized an emergency
migration of Republican politicians and supporters to Florida to assist the
Bush campaign during the recount.
George W. Bush was
inaugurated in January 2001.
Karl Rove accepted a position in the Bush administration as Senior Advisor
to the President.
In March 2001, Rove met with executives
from Intel, successfully
advocating a merger between a Dutch company and an Intel company supplier. Rove owned
$100,000 in Intel Co. stock at the time. In June 2001, Rove met with two pharmaceutical
industry lobbyists. At the time, Rove held almost $250,000 in drug industry
stocks. On 30 June
2001, Rove divested his
stocks in 23 companies, which included more than $100,000 in each Enron, Boeing, General Electric, and Pfizer. On 30 June 2001, the White House admitted that Rove
was involved in administration energy policy meetings, while at the same
time holding stock in energy companies including Enron.
On 10 April 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger met
with Rove to discuss whether the actor should run for Governor of California
in 2006.
On 14 May 2003, during a meeting with South Korean
president Roh
Moo-hyun, President George W. Bush brought only Rove
and Condoleezza
Rice.
On 29 August 2003, retired ambassador Joseph C.
Wilson named Rove as the White House official who leaked to the press the identity of a CIA operative as the wife of a
prominent journalist and Bush administration critic. The White House denied
the allegation. See Valerie
Plame.
