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.
