The Rove Show.
By Mary McGrory
Sunday, January 26, 2003; Page B07
People who wonder what George W. Bush and his genius adviser Karl Rove have
in common need look no further than their attitudes toward the press.
President Bush has held a grand total of seven solo news conferences since
he took the oath of office.
The seance between his political helper, Rove, and the writing Washington
press corps -- conducted under the aegis of the Christian Science Monitor
-- took eight months to arrange.
Usually the Monitor has the scribblers in for breakfasts -- artery-clogging
cholesterol extravaganzas. Sometimes, for special eminences, lunch is
offered. These alternatives had been heavily negotiated since May, and
briefly an unprecedented early dinner was considered. Finally, accord was
reached, and the group threw the first high tea in its history, with petits
fours and tiny chocolate eclairs.
It was a sellout at the St. Regis, and it brought out all the ham in Rove.
He put on a stellar performance in a one-man sketch that could have been
subtitled "Life With George." It had a considerable element of fantasy, and
it showed that the consigliere shares another major trait with his capo:
audacity.
Bush's audacity in presenting an economic package that looked like a
handout to the rich -- and then rounding on his critics with charges of
class warfare -- was breathtaking. Rove went him one better: He claims his
boss is a "populist."
And, he added, amid dropping jaws and lowered eclairs, "Give him a choice
between Wall Street and Main Street, and he'll choose Main Street every time."
Rove, who has been celebrated in innumerable magazine tributes and in a
book called "Boy Genius," played down his White House role. He wins some,
he loses some. It's only the clunky Capitol that has mistaken these two
good old boys looking for a chance to help the little guy as having a
Svengali-type relationship.
Despite his strenuous efforts at self-effacement, Rove took questions about
foreign policy and showed that his writ is worldwide.
In dealing with matters of state politics, he demonstrated another shared
Bush quality: aggressive inconsistency. Like Bush, Rove wants it both ways,
and he doesn't want doctrines or principles drawn from highly disparate
dealings, as was the case with Iraq and North Korea. One bad country is
slated for Hellfire missiles, the other for lectures on disarmament. The
way Rove is handling internal political crises in two U.S. states is
comparable.
Rove was asked about a California fight over the state chairmanship. The
front-runner is a Republican who shares Trent Lott's nostalgia for the Old
South. His name is Bill Back, and he once distributed an article to party
faithful suggesting that the country would have been better off if the
Confederacy had won the Civil War. Considering the recent Lott rumpus,
which Rove handled so masterfully, you might have expected a little pious
protest. Rove's answer was cool. "That's up to the California delegation,"
suggesting deference to state sovereignty.
But minutes later, he was asked about a domestic dispute in Illinois,
where, he said, "We asked to be consulted on the party leadership. . . We
just wanted to be part of the process." He was asked why. "Because Illinois
is a big state with a lot of electoral votes." The same could have been
said of California, even more so. It has 54 electoral votes, compared with
Illinois's 22.
The difference is that the California squabble involves the base. Bush's
conservative base was not pleased by the sacking of Lott, and his
non-intervention in a similar case perhaps soothes and mollifies these
touchy constituents. Bush would almost rather die than offend them.
Rove's show offered a picture of a White House where improvisation is the
preferred method of operation. Policy is made up as they go along. Please
don't mention politics. He established himself as a policy wonk with a
filibuster on Bush the environmentalist, who endorses clear-cutting to save
our national forests from fiery death. He described hearing beetles
consuming a dead tree in Oregon. Teddy Roosevelt would be cheering W. on,
Rove said, in one of his most adventurous spins.
One of the few reminders that Rove is a disciple of Lee Atwater -- the
senior Bush's chief horse whisperer and perhaps the foremost cutthroat
operative of his time -- was an answer about the Democrats. Asked if he
shared the New Yorker's opinion of them as "cowed and incoherent," he
declined to comment.
Asked who was the best Democratic speaker, Rove replied readily, "Ted
Kennedy." It was a perfect answer -- dismissing the Democratic presidential
pack and singling out a Democrat who is no threat to Bush and a
money-raising buzzword to Republicans.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40865-2003Jan24.html
