[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Postulating a Dark Side to a Bush Operative' s Work

[swiggard at comcast.net]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
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Yo, CIVIC -
He who stays out of the gutter loses...the new reality of Ameican politics unfolds in a new documentary on the REAL Dr. Evil, Karl Rove.
UGH,
Bill

swiggard at comcast.net


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Postulating a Dark Side to a Bush Operative's Work

August 27, 2004
 By STEPHEN HOLDEN 



 

What pathetic wimp came up with the slogan "It's not
whether you win or lose but how you play the game"? As most
politicians and sports figures know, the spoils of war go
to the victor. That old adage about sportsmanship is just a
quaint grade-school bromide to comfort the crybabies who go
away empty-handed. 

Just ask that master political operative Karl Rove, the
Bush presidential adviser who is attacked in the polemical
documentary "Bush's Brain." The movie, which opens today in
New York and Los Angeles, depicts Mr. Rove as the ultimate
practitioner of ruthless, ends-justifying-the-means dirty
politics. 

Although few if any of the movie's allegations of unethical
behavior by Mr. Rove can be proved, the dirty tricks laid
at his doorstep, mostly by association, add up to a pattern
of contemptuous disregard for the truth and the arrogant
pushing of legal limits without technically breaking the
law. Mr. Rove's philosophy of political combat, assorted
journalists and former associates attest, is that it's not
enough to beat the opposition. Whenever possible, you must
destroy it. 

"Bush's Brain," directed by Joseph Mealey and Michael
Paradies Shoob, was adapted from the book "Bush's Brain:
How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential" by James C.
Moore and Wayne Slater, both of whom appear in the film. In
a sadder-but-wiser tone, the film's talking heads, many
from Texas, chronicle Mr. Rove's rise to power from his
high school debating team, through his activities as a
collegiate Young Republican, through his involvement as a
Republican operative in Texas and on. 

By all accounts Mr. Rove is an extremely bright and affable
fellow whose dark side rarely shows itself in face-to-face
personal relations. Mr. Rove attached himself to George W.
Bush during his Texas gubernatorial campaign. It is said
that the future president was clueless as to how to proceed
until Mr. Rove drilled him in what and what not to say
while campaigning. 

Their relationship, it is surmised, is an attraction of
opposites. In high school Mr. Rove was a classic nerd,
while the handsome, popular Mr. Bush always cultivated the
image of a fraternity jock. Mr. Rove was a close associate
of Lee Atwater, the political attack dog of the Reagan-Bush
team, and introduced him to Mr. Bush Sr. 

Mr. Rove's roster of alleged dirty tricks goes back at
least as far as the 1986 gubernatorial race in Texas, when
the Republican candidate, Bill Clement, squeaked out a
narrow victory against Mark White after Mr. Rove, who was
running Mr. Clement's campaign, said his office was bugged.
Evidence pointed to the possibility that Mr. Rove had
planted the bug himself. 

The Rove technique is detected in the smear campaign that
helped defeat the Democrat Ann Richards in the 1994
gubernatorial election and in turning the tide against
Senator John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina presidential
primary after his victory in New Hampshire. Rove's hand is
also detected in the campaign last year that defeated the
Georgia Democratic Senator, Max Cleland, a genuine war hero
who lost three limbs in Vietnam, by portraying him as
unpatriotic. 

The film also makes a credible though not airtight case
that he masterminded the outing of Valerie Plame as a
C.I.A. operative after her husband, Joseph Wilson, disputed
the administration's claim that Iraq had sought to acquire
uranium from Niger. 

In the final sequence, "Bush's Brain" goes overboard by
interviewing the tearful survivors of an American casualty
in Iraq. The mawkish play for emotion doesn't belong in the
otherwise sober inquiry into Mr. Rove's political ethics. 

Whether or not "Bush's Brain" makes its case against Mr.
Rove, the movie leaves you with the sickening feeling that
it's no longer possible in American politics to stay out of
the gutter unless, of course, you want to lose. Dirty
politics work. 

"Bush's Brain" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned)
for brief strong language. 

BUSH'S BRAIN 

Produced and directed by Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies
Shoob; based on the book "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made
George W. Bush Presidential" by James C. Moore and Wayne
Slater; edited by Tom Siiter; music by Michelle Shocked and
David Friedman; released by Tartan Films. Running time: 89
minutes. This film is rated PG-13. 

WITH: Jacques Vroom (Narrator).


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/movies/27BRAI.html?ex=1094605232&ei=1&en=065338032ebd47e2


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